Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust was established in Worcestershire, England, on 1 July 2011 to manage services previously managed by Worcestershire Primary Care NHS Trust's Provider Arm, as well as the mental health services that were managed by Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.

According to the trust’s clinical director for older adult mental health Dr Bernie Coope about 8,500 people in Worcestershire – 3.4% of the entire population are living with dementia in 2015, and this figure is increasing by 3% each year.[3]

Campaign group Betrayed By Their Trust claimed in 2015 that it had evidence of “a highly abusive culture” at the Trust. The trust employs more than 4,000 staff and has received 2 claims of bullying or harassment during 2014, both of which are under investigation. The trust’s chief executive Sarah Dugan said they would co-operate with a review but refuted any allegations of a “bullying culture” by saying “Our recent staff survey, which is anonymous, revealed that the vast majority had never experienced any form of harassment, bullying or discrimination from their manager, team leader or other colleagues”.[4]

It was named by the Health Service Journal as one of the top hundred NHS trusts to work for in 2015. At that time it had 3127 full-time equivalent staff and a sickness absence rate of 4.36%. 69% of staff recommend it as a place for treatment and 58% recommended it as a place to work.[5]

In 2017 it was named as a Global Digital Exemplar for Mental Health in the report Next Steps on the NHS, produced as part of the implementation of the Five Year Forward View.[6] It has been given up to £5 million of national funding to develop new digital systems to support mental health patients.[7] It made a three year agreement with Cambio Healthcare Systems in 2018 to create what was described as "a disruptive clinical solution for community and mental health trusts". This involves an integrated solution for e-prescribing and medicines administration and clinical decision support systems designed for mental healthcare. It will use FHIR standards which would let other NHS trusts link any third-party applications for secure access to their patient records.[8]

It is part of the Herefordshire and Worcestershire sustainability and transformation partnership.[9]