Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

The Wiltshire NHS changes

Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GWH) has been named as the preferred provider for community-based health services in Wiltshire from 1 April 2011.

As a result, community-based NHS services for Wiltshire, plus maternity services for Bath and parts of Somerset, will transfer to Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

At a NHS meeting I attended yesterday, we were assured that this will make no difference so far as patients are concerned, being simply a "transfer of organisational responsibility and not a change to the way services are delivered or the places where they are provided."

The transfer is subject to the completion of legal formalities between NHS Wiltshire and GWH and approval of the transfer by Monitor (the 'quango' which regulates NHS Foundation Trusts).

The announcement of the preferred provider organisation is a key milestone in the "Transforming Community Services" project in Wiltshire, which sees health services currently provided by Wiltshire Community Health Services, such as district nursing and maternity services, transfer to new employing organisations.

The formal transfer of the services to the new employer will take place at midnight on 31 March. Clinical staff and some non-clinical support staff who work in the transferring services, such as nurses, midwives, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, will all transfer to the new organisation at the same time.