Merger idea for Shropshire health trust to develop services
A Shropshire health trust may have to join another organisation in order to maintain and develop its services.
At a meeting due to be held tomorrow Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust board will discuss if it is sustainable, clinically and financially, for the future.
The trust provides a range of community-based health services from district nursing and health visiting, to physiotherapy and specialist community clinics.
It also provides services at community hospitals in Bridgnorth, Whitchurch, Ludlow and Bishop's Castle.
In August the board decided that the trust and its services needed to become part of a larger organisation for community services to develop. If approved, NHS Improvement will help find a new "model of delivery" which may include formally joining another organisation.
Jan Ditheridge, chief executive, said: "The board has carried out a detailed review and concluded that to meet the needs of our communities we need to be part of something bigger.
"We will be recommending that we join an organisation with a strong track record in terms of finance, delivering quality services, supporting transformation and is committed to Shropshire. We have solid foundations for community services, our greatest asset being our staff.
"Now is the time to secure their future."
In a report due to be discussed at the meeting Julie Thornby, director of corporate affairs, said: "The board has been considering for some time now whether we are sustainable – clinically and financially – in our current organisational form, based on guiding principles.
"Those principles include our ability to deliver high quality services, and our capacity and ability to deliver the transformed out-of-hospital community services that are vital to our own vision, and to the Sustainability and Transformation Plan with our partners. These considerations have not come about because the trust is failing in its performance or finances."
The trust was formed after the merger of Shropshire County Primary Care Trust and Telford and Wrekin Primary Care Trust.
The trust board will consider the proposal at its meeting at Bridgnorth Community Hall tomorrow at 9.15am.
