| Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust | |
| Start Date: | 1 October 2021 |
| Headquarters: | Salford, Greater Manchester, England |
| Hospitals: | |
The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) is an NHS foundation trust in Greater Manchester, England.
It was created on 1 April 2017 by way of a formal partnership of two NHS Trusts - Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. David Dalton led the development.[1]
The NCA launched as a multi-site group model under the leadership of Dalton, initially providing healthcare services from six hospitals - Salford Royal, the Royal Oldham Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital, Rochdale Infirmary and North Manchester General Hospital - as well as outlying community facilities. At the time of its launch it had 2,000 hospital beds and over 17,000 staff, and served a population of over 1 million.[2]
On 1 April 2020, North Manchester General Hospital joined the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) under a management agreement, and was expected to formally leave the NCA in October 2020.[3]
Owen Williams, who is chair of NHS England’s Health Inequalities Expert Advisory Group, is the Chief Executive.[4]
In December 2021, the trust planned to open virtual wards which would to reduce hospital occupancy to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in England. At that point, the number of patients in A&E breaching the 12 hour target had gone from 250 in September to 267 in October, a sharp rise from 18 in April.[5]
In January 2022, the trust, together with Bolton NHS Foundation Trust was the worst hit by Covid hospital admissions in England.[6] In June 2022, it announced plans to set up a 500-bed virtual ward using Dignio technology for patients with a variety of different conditions. Patients will use the MyDignio App to record their vital signs.[7]