UHSM takes over local community health services
“We are delighted that the community service transfers in Manchester have been concluded within the given timescales. It has been a significant challenge given the complexity of the transfers and I would like to thank all our partners for their co-operation and commitment to ensuring the safe transfer of both services and staff.
We believe that the integration of community health services with larger hospital and other NHS organisations will provide opportunities for providing smoother, seamless care for patients. We have excellent community health services in the city which are delivering the very best for our patients, families and communities and we are confident that these service transfers will enable us to build on this work.”
John Harrop
Manchester TCS Programme Director
The NHS in Manchester has completed a transfer of its community health services as part of the Government’s Transforming Community Services (TCS) programme. This has been a complex change with services moving from a single provider - Manchester Community Health (part of NHS Manchester) - to five other NHS organisations.
From 1 April, the responsibility for providing community health services, and the staff who provide them, transferred to: Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (UHSM), Manchester Mental Health & Social Care NHS Trust, and Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.
For UHSM, this has meant the transfer of around 400 community health service staff ranging from district nurses to those working in podiatry and continence care.
The aim of the national TCS programme is to secure greater effectiveness and efficiencies in community services so that they can provide modern personalised and responsive care of a consistently high standard. Effective community health services are vital to support people in their own homes and provide local care and treatment outside hospital settings.
This is largely an administrative change and patients who receive community health services are unlikely to experience any immediate change in the way these services are provided. Community health services will continue to be based at health centres and clinics. Patients’ medical information will be securely transferred to the new NHS organisations providing those services and will remain confidential to them.
For details of which community health services have transferred to UHSM, please go to this page.