\n A SIGNIFICANT step for healthcare in Warrington and the surrounding area has taken place this week, and one I know will make a real difference to our patients and communities.\n<\/p>\n
\n Yesterday, 1 April, Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals and Bridgewater Community Healthcare officially came together as one organisation: North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bringing two organisations together is a detailed process, carefully overseen by NHS England and approved by government.\n<\/p>\n
\n We\u2019ve followed every required step to make sure the transition is a safe one, with patient care remaining our number one priority.\n<\/p>\n
\n I want to say a genuine thank you to our teams, governors, partners, and residents who have helped us reach this point.\n<\/p>\n
\n If you use our services, you might be wondering what this means for you.\n<\/p>\n
\n At first you\u2019ll start to see some small differences \u2013 our new trust name appearing on patient letters or signs, for example \u2013 but these will not disrupt your care.\n<\/p>\n
\n The names of our hospitals and community sites will stay the same.\n<\/p>\n
\n You will continue to go to Warrington Hospital, Halton Hospital, or the clinics and community locations where you usually receive support.\n<\/p>\n
\n You\u2019ll be looked after by the same teams, and appointment processes and contact details all remain unchanged.\n<\/p>\n
\n Importantly, what matters now is what becoming one organisation enables us to do next.\n<\/p>\n
\n The medium to longer term benefits of becoming a single trust are where the real opportunity lies.\n<\/p>\n
\n Our population is growing and people are living longer, often with complex health needs.\n<\/p>\n
\n Demand on NHS services is rising, and we need to support people earlier and more effectively.\n<\/p>\n
\n By joining up hospital and community teams we can reduce unnecessary appointments, shorten waiting times, offer more support closer to home and, ultimately, help people stay well for longer.\n<\/p>\n
\n It also means that when someone does need hospital treatment, they can return home safely with the right support.\n<\/p>\n
\n We\u2019re already seeing the potential of more integrated working through initiatives like the Living Well Hub in the town centre.\n<\/p>\n
\n We can build on this approach by making better use of digital tools, illustrated by our recent developments in AI technology to help speed up skin cancer diagnoses, and by strengthening services that give people more choice in how they access advice and support.\n<\/p>\n
\n Becoming North Cheshire and Mersey marks the start of an exciting new chapter.\n<\/p>\n
\n There is a lot of work ahead, but we now have a strong foundation to keep improving and deliver the right support and care in the right place at the right time.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far.\n<\/p>\n
\n Together, we can make a real difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A SIGNIFICANT step for healthcare in Warrington and the surrounding area has taken place this week, and one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-508852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}