Hill Dickinson advises Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust on becoming one of the largest trusts in the North West

On 1 June 2021 Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust (MCFT) acquired North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NWBH), resulting in MCFT becoming the one of the largest trusts in the North West.

Both trusts have been working together since 2019, initially by sharing resources and jointly providing healthcare services to their patients, and further integration  will allow the combined trust to provide better care and services to all patients across its new footprint. 

As the NHS moves to Integrated Care Systems and a greater focus on population health, the expectation  is that the acquisition will bring significant benefits. The services MCFT has acquired include specialist inpatient and community services that support mental health, learning disabilities and children’s and young people’s mental health services (CAHMS). 

Chris Lyons, director for strategic programmes at MCFT, commented: “The acquisition of North West Boroughs by Mersey Care provides the enlarged organisation with the opportunity to learn from our new colleagues and similarly to share our experiences. It is our intention to bring the best practices from both organisations into the new enlarged organisation. The acquisition has created a trust with a turnover of circa £600 million per annum and will allow us to be strong advocate for mental health and community services going forward.

“Given our size, it will allow us to operate at scale and to make and implement strategic decisions which smaller organisations would not have the financial stability and expertise to implement and realise. For example, we see an opportunity in relation to bed management and the need to eliminate the practice of sending patients who need to be admitted to a mental health hospital bed. Prior to the acquisition, North West Boroughs had to send patients out of area in order to access a bed. We believe that by combining our bed resources and implementing new processes that we can eliminate this practice within 18 months.” 

Chris Lyons added: “We appreciated the support and professionalism of Hill Dickinson during the transaction process, led by specialist health lawyers Jamie Foster and Christiana Demetriou. In particular, we appreciated the straightforward nature of the advice presented and the willingness to respond quickly and effectively to any queries that we raised. The service was very professional and accommodating during the process.”

Christiana Demetriou, associate in the firm’s Commercial Healthcare and Life Sciences team, said: “Hill Dickinson was delighted to support both trusts on the acquisition over the last year and we look forward to providing on-going support to MCFT as it embarks on this new and exciting chapter.”