Warrington & Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was created on 1 December 2008 from what was formerly known as North Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust. The trust comprises Warrington Hospital, Halton Hospital in Runcorn and Houghton Hall in Warrington and is responsible for a budget of around £200 million per annum.

4100 staff work across the hospitals and provide access to care for a population of over 500,000 people.

Warrington Hospital is an acute district general hospital with over 500 beds and around 3000 staff. Its services include 24-hour emergency care, maternity care and complex surgery. The accident and emergency department sees over 95,000 patients annually, and over 3,300 babies are born each year in the maternity unit. It is located in Bewsey, just outside Warrington town centre.

Warrington General Hospital was created from the workhouse in 1898. In 1929 it was renamed Warrington Borough Hospital and to this day is referred to as the Borough by many people. There were two other hospitals on the site; Aikin Street (an infectious diseases hospital) and Whitecross Hospital, which was run by the military.

In 1973 a decision was taken to merge all three hospitals into Warrington District General Hospital. The current hospital has grown in four stages since then.

In 1993 the government decided to separate the role of health authorities and hospitals and the hospital was handed over from Warrington Health Authority to the newly formed Warrington Hospital NHS Trust. North Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust was formed by the merger of Warrington Hospital NHS Trust and Halton General Hospital NHS Trust in 2001.

The hospital has undergone significant development over recent years with a rebuilt accident and emergency and coronary care unit and refurbishment of most of the wards. A new critical care unit costing £6.25 million opened in February 2009 and in late 2010 new endoscopy and eye surgery units opened in the Appleton Wing.

In September 1976, Halton General Hospital was opened in Runcorn. It was a newly built 70-inpatient-bed hospital, next door to Runcorn Shopping City (now called Halton Lea Shopping) and part of the development of Runcorn New Town.

Halton Health Authority passed control of the hospital to the newly formed Halton General Hospitals NHS Trust in 1993. In 2001 North Cheshire Hospital NHS Trust was formed by the merger of Halton General Hospital NHS Trust and Warrington Hospital NHS Trust.

In 2006 a reconfiguration of services saw the trust's emergency and acute medical care work centralised at Warrington Hospital and planned surgical work move to Halton General. Although Halton has never had a full accident and emergency department it retains its minor injuries unit for basic urgent care needs.

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