Visit to Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Earlier this week, our chief executive Daniel Elkeles visited Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
 
Daniel said: “You can visibly tell how proud the staff are of their organisation and their services at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The CQC ‘outstanding’ rated trust provides acute, community and some primary care for 600,000 people from its sites at Whiston, Southport, Ormskirk, St Helens and Newton and is the regional centre for plastic surgery and burns. The trust was created from a merger in 2023.
 
“With responsibility for 13,000 resident doctors across a wide regional footprint the trust is the largest lead employer in England. It is also punching way above its weight in research entering over 2,000 patients into 150 clinical trials last year.
 
“The reconstructive breast surgery service is one the trust is rightly proud of. The lead surgeon Miss Rieka Taghizadeh introduced Daniel and trust chief executive Rob, to Amy, one of her recent patients. Amy’s reconstructive surgery using tissue from her abdomen had literally changed her life by restoring her self-confidence.

“Amy is on the left side of the photo and Rieka on the right with the burgeoning awards cabinet for the service also sporting a fluorescent pink wig and bra!

The service is now routinely doing the reconstructive surgery on two thirds of patients at the same time as the mastectomy with strong multi-disciplinary team across the breast and plastic surgeon teams. The post-surgery recovery process has been optimised to discharge patients as quickly as possible with minimum pain levels and maximum patient mobility.
 
🔵The trust is also one of those leading the way in neighbourhood healthcare. hosting two of the 43 neighbourhood pioneer sites in its footprints covering Sefton and St Helens.

🔵The trust has taken the bold step of putting its elderly care and frailty services onto EMIS so there's total data sharing with all GP practices in its area, similar to how Surrey Downs Health and Care operates.

🔵 Both places report that this is a game-changing intervention in facilitating joined up care. The trust is actively exploring if it can create a new model of care on a non-acute site for patients with no criteria to reside.
 
“Thank you so much to Rob, Rieka, Mike and Ascanio and of course Amy for a most inspiring visit.”