Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCH) and Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WHH) are joining forces and working as one to improve healthcare services for our communities.
Warrington and Halton need strong and resilient clinical services, and our healthcare system must be sustainable for the future.
We know that we can achieve more together for both our patients and staff.
By coming together, we will deliver new models of care, with the continued involvement of a wide range of partners and voices, including primary care, local authorities and people with lived experience.
This is an exciting opportunity to really make things better for our patients and our staff, while also making our services stronger and more resilient.
With shared leadership, we will integrate our services.
We now have three joint executives; Nikhil Khashu, Chief Executive, Dr Paul Fitzsimmons, Medical Director and Daniel Moore, Chief Operating Officer.
Our plans to integrate WHH and BCH are progressing well and subject to all necessary approvals, we plan to become a single organisation in April 2027.
The preferred way forward is for the acquisition of Bridgewater Community Healthcare by Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals.
This will help us to create the environment, leadership and governance for high-quality clinical and corporate services to thrive.
Following engagement activity undertaken earlier this year, we are also introducing a partnership name to reflect our organisations working increasingly closer together. From 1 April 2025 we will use ‘North Cheshire and Mersey Healthcare Partnership’ in limited circumstances.
The partnership name does not replace our two existing organisational identifies while WHH and BCH remain sovereign organisations.
This will evolve into our future organisational name in April 2027, when we plan to become ‘North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust’, subject to approval as part of the NHS transaction required.
Our organisations have much in common, and we are looking forward to a bright future for our healthcare services in Warrington and Halton, and those we provide further afield.
Throughout the integration process we will be actively engaging with our staff, stakeholders, people with lived experience and our local communities to help shape the programme as it evolves and develops.
Better Care Together: A case for change
The ‘Better Care Together: A case for change’ document outlines the benefits of coming together as one single organisation for our partners and commissioners.
Read the Better Care Together: A case for change document (PDF 8.57MB)
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Frequently asked questions
Read our full list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the Better Care Together programme.