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Wirral University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Trust Structure

We are one of the largest and busiest acute trusts in the North West of England.

NHS Foundation Trust status was given to us on July 1st 2007. This enables us to:

  • Provide and develop healthcare according to the core NHS principles of free care based on need and not ability to pay
  • Have greater freedom to decide our own strategy and the way we run our services
  • Retain any financial surplus at the end of the year to reinvest in services and care provision
  • Borrow to invest in new and improved services for patients and service users.

We have a key accountability to our local community through our public members and governors. We are also accountable to our commissioners (through contracts), Parliament, and NHS England and Improvement (the independent regulator of foundation trusts).

Providing a comprehensive range of high quality acute care services, our 5,600-strong workforce serves a population of about 400,000 people across Wirral, Ellesmere Port, Neston, North Wales and the wider North West footprint.

Our structure comprises the following four divisions supported by a smaller Corporate Services function:

  1. Clinical Support and Diagnostics
  2. Medicine and Acute
  3. Women and Children’s
  4. Surgery
  • Clinical Support and Diagnostics – Karen Heywood (Divisional Director), Dr Simon Lea (Associate Medical Director), Tracey McLoughlin (Divisional Director of Nursing).
  • ED & Acute – Dr King Sun Leong (Associate Medical Director), Dylan Edwards (Divisional Director of Nursing).
  • Women & Children’s – Natalie Park (Divisional Director), Dr Jonathan Lund (Associate Medical Director) and Jo Lavery (Divisional Director of Nursing).
  • Surgery - Paul McNulty (Divisional Director), Dr Kathryn Brodbelt (Associate Medical Director) and Linuji Thomas (Interim Divisional Director of Nursing).
  • Medical Specialties - Alistair Leinster (Divisional Director), Dr John Corless (Associate Medical Director), Sachin Ramdhay (Divisional Director of Nursing).

We operate from two main sites (Arrowe Park Hospital and Clatterbridge Hospital), while also providing a range of services in community settings:

  1. Arrowe Park Hospital, Upton – delivering a full range of emergency and acute services for adults and children, plus maternity services
  2. Clatterbridge Hospital, Bebington – undertaking the majority of planned surgical services and some specialist rehabilitation 
  3. St Catherine’s Community Hospital, Birkenhead – providing x-ray and some outpatient services
  4. Victoria Central Health Centre, Wallasey – providing x-ray and some outpatient services.

The full range of our services for local people include:

  • Accident and emergency services for adults and children
  • A diverse range of acute and non-acute specialties
  • Outpatients services
  • Day surgery services
  • Maternity
  • Level 3 neonatal services

Our clinical work is also complemented by corporate services, which comprises of; Executive Office, Operations and Strategy, Finance and Procurement, Human Resources and Organisational Development, Information, Patient and Public Involvement, Quality and Safety, Facilities and Estates Management, Corporate Nursing and Midwifery.

As one of the largest employers in Wirral, we’ve had significant recognition from our external organisations for our support for staff through effective policies, initiatives and partnership working approach.

The commitment to our staff reflects our wider commitment to improve internal efficiencies and develop high quality, people centred care.