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Manchester City Council endorses single hospital trust

Manchester’s three central hospitals are to be joined together in an ambitious healthcare plan after it was approved by Manchester City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board.

The committee’s decision means that Pennine Acute NHS Trust, Central Manchester University Hospital NHS FT and University Hospital of South Manchester NHS FT will produce an initial assessment of the implementation process and the timescales required.

Sir Jonathan Michael, who introduced the proposal, as reported by PSE’s sister title NHE, said the changes were vital to address “unacceptable variations” among health service quality in the city.

He added that Manchester has some of the worst health outcomes in the country, which the Greater Manchester Combined Authority is seeking to improve following the devolution of the city’s £6bn health budget.

Sir Jonathan also said the assessments should be returned within six weeks.

“There is an enormous change programme that you’re embarking on, and maintaining pace is really important,” he said.

He added the benefits of the single trust included improving quality of patient experience, workforce, financial and operational efficiency, training and education and research opportunities, and called for a formal statutory consultation to be part of the process, since it had not been so far.

However, Mike Wild, voluntary and community sector representative on the board, said he wanted “more emphasis” on the involvement of community members in the decision process.

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