06.05.16
Wirral Community and Mersey Care become foundation trusts
NHS Improvement has announced that it is creating two new NHS foundation trusts in the Liverpool area.
The two trusts were created on 1 May. Wirral Community FT provides community health services including community nursing, therapies, GP out-of-hours and walk-in-centres from more than 40 bases in the Wirral, Cheshire and Liverpool.
Mersey Care NHS Trust provides specialist inpatient and community mental health, learning disability and addiction services for adults in Liverpool, Sefton and Kirkby, medium secure services for Merseyside and Cheshire, and high secure services covering the north west of England, the West Midlands and Wales. It is the second provider of high secure services to become a foundation trust.
Miranda Carter, director of FT assessment and new organisational models at NHS Improvement, said: “It is a pleasure to announce the authorisation of both Mersey Care and Wirral Community as foundation trusts and is a testament to the hard work and dedication of every member of staff at those organisations.
“As foundation trusts, both will now have the freedom to develop services more tailored to the needs of the populations they serve.”
Foundation trust status is granted to organisations after they prove they are well-led in a CQC inspection. It is meant to offer them freedom from central government control, the ability to retain surpluses and borrow money and the chance to make local people members and governors.
The announcement means that there are now 157 foundation trusts, more than 60% of all NHS trusts.
The announcement comes as a reassurance after fears that Birmingham Community Healthcare and Sussex Community were going to be the last foundation trusts to receive the title once NHS Improvement replaced Monitor.
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