THE NHS Trust which runs the Royal Oldham Hospital has joined with another Trust to create one of the largest NHS healthcare organisations in Greater Manchester and the North West.

In what is being described as an ‘exciting opportunity’ to serve a population of over 1 million people under a new Group arrangement of hospitals and community healthcare services, The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (PAT) and Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust have joined to create the new Northern Care Alliance NHS Group.

The new Northern Care Alliance NHS Group brings together five local hospitals, 2,000 beds, specialist and acute services, a range of community services, and over 17,000 staff and it is being led by Sir David Dalton who has been Chief Executive of both Trusts since taking charge of Pennine Acute Trust (PAT) in April last year.

For the past 15 years The Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust which was formed in April 2002 has run four hospitals of The Royal Oldham Hospital, Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield General Hospital in Bury and North Manchester General Hospital, and more recently expanded its provision of integrated and community services in North Manchester and Rochdale borough.

Salford Royal is one of the top performing NHS Foundation Trusts in the country where Sir David Dalton has been Chief Executive since 2001, leading it to an ‘outstanding’ rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2015 - the first in the North of England. It is also the first Trust with integrated acute and community services to earn this rating.

With an operating budget of £1.3 billion budget, the new Alliance provides the benefits of scale but delivers this locally through multiple hospital sites and local healthcare services.

Four Care Organisations for Oldham, Bury/Rochdale, North Manchester and Salford are now responsible for providing healthcare services to local communities under the Alliance, with each organisation and hospital site now having its own director leadership team led by a Chief Officer and consisting of a Medical Director, Director of Nursing, and Finance Director.

Each Care Organisation is working closely with local Councils to develop Integrated Care Organisations (ICOs) to join together health and care services and shift more care into the community.

Sir David Dalton, Group Chief Executive of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group: “These new local arrangements for our Care Organsiations for Oldham, Bury and Rochdale, Salford and North Manchester place the emphasis for operational management of health services where it matters - in each hospital and locality.

"They strengthen senior leadership support at hospital-level, enabling better engagement with staff and clinical teams.

"Compared with the previous, more remote Trust HQ they are closer to the ‘shop floor’, understanding the challenges and issues staff are facing. These teams will build strong relationships with each of our local health and social care partners.

“Together as a new Alliance, and working closely with our partners, we will use this scale to deliver better services that are safe, reliable and high quality, leading to improved outcomes for our patients and other benefits. Our Mission Statement that binds us all together is: ‘Saving lives, Improving lives’. We will deliver highly reliable care and services, at scale, which are trusted, connected and pioneering."

He added that, with local commissioners, the alliance is identifying options for high quality, sustainable service portfolios for each hospital site and are designing a single ‘shared hospital service’ across Bury, Rochdale and Oldham – associated with Salford Royal and/or where appropriate, with other partner organisations.

Sir David continued: “These are exciting times: a new name for our Alliance, a new sense of purpose, and new investment alongside a commitment to continue to work closely with our staff, our communities and our partners to provide high quality care to our patients. All of this, together with the spirit of teamwork and can do attitude which exists in all of our Care Organisations and services, will enable us to fulfil our crucial mission of Saving Lives, Improving Lives.”

The Northern Care Alliance NHS group will work with its partners in supporting all of the strategies of the GM Health & Social Care Partnership and the priorities of the elected Mayor for Greater Manchester. Governance Arrangements – Group Committees in Common (CiC)

Although Salford Royal has a ‘management agreement’ to manage the Pennine Acute, both Trust Boards have delegated their functions to a Group ‘Committees in Common’ (CiC) which operates the new Alliance. While the two Trusts remain statutory bodies, the CiC effectively manage both Trusts.

The Alliance is also implementing a number of Greater Manchester service changes, such as Major Trauma at Salford Royal and high acuity centres at The Royal Oldham and Salford Royal. The Alliance has received confirmation of £48m for a new clinical building at Salford and £25m for a new clinical building at The Royal Oldham Hospital.