THE Dudley Group of hospitals has joined forces with two other Black Country trusts to form a partnership which health chiefs say will keep specialist skills and care in the area.

Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust has teamed up with Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust to start a new Black Country Alliance - which trust bosses say takes an innovative approach to tackling financial problems facing the NHS and which will also help to boost health outcomes for more than one million people in the Black Country in a sustainable way.

Trust chief executives Paula Clark (Dudley Group), Tony Lewis (Sandwell) and Richard Kirby (Walsall) say the partnership - launched on Tuesday July 14 on Black Country Day - aims to keep and develop specialist services for the Black Country and look at new ways of providing care to patients across the area.

And they say there is greater potential for excellence and sustainability when certain services are provided on a larger scale than can be offered by an individual hospital.

Dudley Group chief executive Paula Clark said: “This is a really exciting time for all three trusts as we aim to be able to keep and return specialist services to the Black Country for our patients, who may otherwise have to go to a larger Trust further afield to receive treatment.

"It offers opportunities to our staff through collaborative working, we will encourage innovative ways to provide the best possible care, developing centres of excellence in the Black Country.

“We will not be looking at all of our services - for example there will still be an accident and emergency department across all trusts, but for some of the more specialist services we will be able to ensure a future in the Black Country or even reinstate them through the Alliance."

Ms Clark said the Alliance, the first of its kind, was formed as NHS England encourages trusts to investigate new models of care to cope with budget reductions and increased demand for services - and she added: "We are very excited about what the future holds to provide excellent care and treatment for the people of the Black Country.”

The Alliance will be governed though a joint board which will oversee priority areas/services that all three trusts think could be redesigned or developed.

Trust bosses say some smaller general hospitals struggle to recruit to certain specialist areas but the Alliance would offer the scale specialists seek to keep skills up to date and develop services further.