What is happening and why?
Bridgewater Community Healthcare (BCH) and Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals (WHH) want to provide better care together.
We 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.
We are joining forces and working as one.
Together we will improve healthcare services for our communities.
We’ll involve our staff, partners and people with lived experience, and we will work and behave as a single organisation.
Subject to all necessary approvals, we plan to eventually become a single organisation.
This will help us to create the environment, leadership and governance for high-quality clinical and corporate services to thrive.
With shared leadership, we are integrating our services.
We will have a joint chief executive and a shared executive team.
We’ve established an integration programme called Better Care Together and we need your support to make it a success.
Our organisations have much in common, and we are looking forward to a bright future for healthcare services in Warrington and Halton, and those we provide further afield.
What benefits will this bring?
Our ultimate aim is to improve patient outcomes and service delivery.
We will see shorter waiting times, with a more streamlined patient journey through the joining up of services.
Importantly, patients will have a better experience when accessing community and hospital healthcare services.
There are many other benefits, including greater use of digital solutions where appropriate to enable the right care to be provided in the right place, more services being provided as close to home as possible, and complex and specialised services being made stronger and more resilient.
All of this will make our services more sustainable for future patients who may need them.
In all that we do, we will work to reduce health inequalities and improve access to services.
Is this just to save money?
No. While being a larger organisation will bring with it greater economies of scale and cost savings are to be expected, the primary motivation is to improve patient care.
Efficient use of our resources enables us to provide the best care possible.
We believe that bringing our organisations together as one is the right thing to do for the communities we serve across Warrington, Halton and beyond.
Who decided on this change?
Our two organisations began discussions about working more collaboratively together back in 2019, just before the pandemic.
COVID-19 delayed these talks, but they resumed when it became clear that there were significant opportunities for further integration.
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside support the decision to bring our organisations together.
What will these new arrangements offer that the existing separate trusts cannot?
We believe that more joined up, seamless, integrated care is best for patients.
We know that people are living longer, with more complex healthcare needs and with more interactions with multiple parts of the healthcare system.
Having fragmented services can increase clinical risk and negatively impact on overall patient experience.
Another big advantage is scale.
A larger organisation can provide services more efficiently and with greater resilience, offering a broader range of recruitment opportunities and becoming more attractive for future development.
Additionally, we’ll benefit from greater diversity, depth, and breadth in our decision-making, enabling us to learn and implement improvements more rapidly and ensuring the highest possible quality of care.
What would happen if Bridgewater and WHH stayed as they are?
We recognise that we need to change to meet the evolving needs of our population.
Doing so will ensure that we can meet those needs in the longer term and be sustainable clinically and financially.
Is this a merger or a takeover?
We are making good progress on our integration programme to bring together community and hospital services across Bridgewater Community Healthcare and Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals.
This change will help us to achieve our ambitions and deliver the greatest benefits for our patients and staff.
Our two Boards agreed to an options appraisal process to identify the best way forward.
After considering several possibilities, which included a merger, acquisitions, or a shared leadership model, a recommendation was taken to both Trust Boards in February.
It was unanimously agreed that the preferred way forward is for the acquisition of Bridgewater Community Healthcare by Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals.
Subject to all the required approvals, we plan to become one single organisation in April 2027.
Our two organisations are stronger and better together, and we are in a unique position to bring about meaningful change – improving services and pathways for the benefit of our patients and communities.
When will things change?
Our joint chief executive, Nikhil Khashu, started in post from 1 November 2024, and a shared executive team will follow as soon as possible.
We are reviewing governance arrangements and plan to have these established in 2025.
Subject to all the required approvals, we plan to become one single organisation in April 2027.
Closer collaboration between our clinical and corporate teams is happening now, and we are already seeing benefit from it.
Any proposed service changes will involve staff, patients and the public as required, and we are committed to co-producing changes wherever possible.
Will there be a disruption to care?
Maintaining the consistency and quality of care is a top priority for us – any proposed services changes will not compromise that, and all will be guided by a robust quality impact assessment.