£14.8million Landmark Agreement Signed

Lord Peter Smith signs the agreement with Jon Rouse

Plans to reduce demand on the local hospital and deliver care closer to home are one step closer as Wigan Borough's health and care organisations sign an agreement worth £14.8million.

Local health partners came together on Friday to sign the landmark agreement which will see them working closer together to help residents lead healthier lives.

The money comes from the £450million Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership Transformation Fund and will be used to radically transform local health and social care services to improve the health of residents.

The funding application, which was submitted in October last year, included a number of transformation projects and involves the main health and social care organisations in the borough working together to transform local services and improve health outcomes for all residents: Wigan Council, NHS Wigan Borough CCG, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS FT, Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS FT and 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS FT.

Part of the funding will also help these organisations work even better together around the needs of patients and residents through the development of Healthier Wigan - the Wigan Borough Integrated Care Organisation.

The new Integrated Community Services (ICS) will receive a share of the money. The ICS means that district nurses, health visitors, social workers and other specialist staff are working together to coordinate care outside the hospital that is planned around the patient's needs. The money will be used to support more teams to come together and work in partnership with the ICS, delivering better, more seamless, joined-up care in communities across the Borough. All of this is vital to helping to provide better alternatives to keep people out of A&E.

All the money goes to services that will support patients to be independent and support the health and social care system to be sustainable. The funding covers the period to March 2018 and we will be preparing further applications to the Transformation Fund to support us in achieving better outcomes for local residents and patients.

Dr Tim Dalton, Local GP and Chair of NHS Wigan Borough CCG, said:

'We are delighted to have been awarded this funding and to be able to inject much needed funds in to driving forward the innovative transformation of local health and social care services. Patients deserve to get high quality care that helps them to live long and healthy lives. This money helps us to fund new, more patient-focused and more integrated services that support patients to be independent.'

Jon Rouse, Chief Officer of Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership said:

'Transformation is at the very heart of devolution and the bid from Wigan Borough's health and care organisations demonstrated an unwavering commitment to bring together multiple organisations from across the area to deliver better, more seamless services across the borough. I am looking forward to seeing the fantastic results that I am sure Wigan Borough will be now be able to deliver thanks to money from the Transformation Fund.'

Lord Peter Smith, leader of Wigan Council and Chair of the CM Health and Social Care Strategic Partnership Board, said:

'In recent years, months and even weeks the strain on the region's hospitals continues to show, especially at this time of year. With an aging population we need to find a long term solution, not a quick fix to the NHS crisis. These plans aim to provide that solution, to help residents lead healthier lives to prevent them from becoming reliant on health services later on in life. In recent years we've already seen massive improvements to health in Wigan Borough, with far less people smoking and dying prematurely. I'm confident that these programmes of work will aid that ambition, making us a healthier borough.'

Andrew Foster, Chief Executive of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, said:

'This successful bid is excellent news for the public in Wigan. It will help us to transform our services so that patients and their carers will be better able to look after themselves, will be better cared for in their own homes by skilled health and care teams and will be less likely to face avoidable hospital admissions.'

Colin Scales, Chief Executive of Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said:

'This funding will support our strong commitment to delivering great integrated care for local people, building on the work that is already underway to transform community health services by working even more closely with our health and social care colleagues to improve out of hospital services for patients.'