How the NHS in Cheshire and Merseyside is bringing health services closer to home
Wednesday, 26 November 2025
NHS teams in Cheshire and Merseyside are transforming the way healthcare is delivered in the region by bringing services closer to communities.
The 10 Year Health Plan for England, published in July, sets out how the NHS will provide more services closer to where people live, improving access to care whilst allowing hospitals to focus on providing specialist care to those who need it.
In Cheshire and Merseyside, teams of clinicians have been working together to develop new care pathways for heart failure to reduce demand on acute services and better support patients outside of a hospital setting.
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (now part of NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group) and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust launched the North West’s first acute heart failure ‘virtual ward’ in May 2022.
Using telehealth technology, teams of multidisciplinary specialist clinicians are able to treat heart failure patients in the comfort and convenience of their own homes while reducing the need for hospitalisation.
Allowing patients to be managed at home instead of a hospital ward has been shown to speed up recovery times. Nearly 2,000 heart failure patients in the region have been supported this way since the service began, which has led to reduced hospital admissions, reduced mortality as well as cost savings for the NHS.
University Hospitals of Liverpool Group has also been working with Everton in the Community and heart failure charity the Pumping Marvellous Foundation to improve access to heart failure care through the BEAT Breathlessness Hub.
The first of its kind in England, the hub gives local residents access to early diagnosis and treatment for heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other long-term conditions such as hypertension and atrial fibrillation, using point of care testing and AI diagnostics.
Since opening in May 2024, the hub has welcomed nearly 1,500 people. So far, its screenings have detected raised blood pressure in more than 30% of attendees, irregular heartbeats in 3%, COPD in 12% and over 40 confirmed heart failure cases.
The project received a HSJ Partnership Award in the preventative care category this year, and has also received a Healthcare Innovation Fund Award by the British Heart Foundation for sustainability and scalability.
Elsewhere, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside and the Cheshire and Merseyside Provider Collaborative have recently been recognised for their work to improve the provision of homecare medicines services in the region, having been shortlisted for Medicines, Pharmacy and Prescribing Initiative of the Year at this year’s Health Service Journal Awards.
Homecare medicines services deliver specialist hospital-prescribed medications directly to a patient’s home, as well as the delivery of supplies, equipment, and sometimes nurse visits for administration or training.
The expansion of homecare medicines services in Cheshire and Merseyside has resulted in fewer patients having to travel to hospital to receive their medication, improving accessibility while reducing the demand on hospital services.
In Wirral, a proactive care programme is bringing together teams from Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, primary care networks and wider partners to support people with frailty, dementia and complex long-term conditions with more coordinated and preventative care.
These integrated care teams work together to identify and assess patients at risk of requiring unplanned care, before developing a personalised and holistic care plan to address their healthcare needs, with the aim of preventing unnecessary hospital admissions.
Figures show that the initiative has resulted in fewer A&E attendances, unplanned hospital admissions and a 15% reduction in GP appointments for people with frailty and long-term conditions, with over 1,000 people now being supported in their own homes.
Meanwhile in Warrington, partners are working together to provide healthcare in new ways that are convenient and easily accessible in neighbourhoods as part of the Living Well programme, which was shortlisted in the Integrated Care Initiative of the Year category at this year’s HSJ Awards.
At the heart of the programme – and the town – is the Living Well Hub, which offers accessible healthcare services and support from a range of partners under one roof. Designed to support residents in an easy to reach location, the hub is helping to prevent ill health, address inequalities and help regeneration of the town centre.
Since opening its doors in early 2024, the Living Well Hub has seen more than 27,500 visitors access advice, guidance and support from more than 25 different clinical and non-clinical services with pre-booked and drop-in appointments.
Professor Rowan Pritchard Jones, Medical Director for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, said:
“Across Cheshire and Merseyside, we are already seeing the NHS Long Term Plan come to life, with care increasingly centred around people and communities rather than buildings. From monitoring patients on virtual wards to supporting them with their medicines at home, our NHS teams are helping people live well at home and avoid unnecessary hospital visits.
“These changes are about building a health and care system that is proactive, joined up and meets the needs of local communities, making it easier for people to access the right support, in the right place, at the right time, whilst allowing our hospitals to focus on what they do best - providing specialist care to those who need it.”
Looking ahead, Sefton and St Helens have both been confirmed as national ‘pioneer’ areas for the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme, which aims to accelerate the move to a ‘neighbourhood health service’ to deliver more care at or closer to home - improving people’s access, experience and outcomes.
Backed by £10m of national funding, the first wave of the programme will provide 43 successful applicants, including Sefton and St Helens, with access to national support to develop neighbourhood health systems which better support adults with multiple long-term conditions.
To find out more about the NHS’s shift to neighbourhood health, you can read the 10 Year Health Plan for England at www.england.nhs.uk/long-term-plan.