Our strategy 2022 to 2025

The Walton Centre is the only specialist hospital trust in the UK providing comprehensive neurology, neurosurgery, spinal, pain management and rehabilitation services. Our three‑year strategy sets out how we will continue to deliver excellent clinical outcomes and patient experience with our team of dedicated, specialist staff.

Foreword

The strategy covers the three years from 2022 to 2025, and reflects the pace of change in the NHS due to the COVID‑19 pandemic and the infrastructure changes brought about by the Health and Social Care Bill 2021. 

At The Walton Centre, we place our patients and their families at the heart of everything we do. We are a national leader in neurology and neurosurgery, and are rated as ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We have leading specialists and dedicated staff across our site in Liverpool, and offer a world‑class service in diagnosing and treating injuries and illnesses affecting the brain, spine and peripheral nerves and muscles, and in supporting people with a wide range of long‑term neurological conditions.

We serve an area of 3.5 million people across Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales, the Isle of Man, and parts of Lancashire and Greater Manchester, and have service partnerships with 12 NHS Trusts across 19 hospitals and medical centres. Our ‘Walton Clinic’ model of care for neurology means that many patients are able to access outpatient consultations and some tests closer to home, through our clinics at these sites. Neurosurgery, highly specialised assessments and inpatient care is carried out at The Walton Centre itself.

Since our last strategy in 2018, we have grown, developed and innovated at pace. This includes being the first neuroscience centre in the region to provide a 24/7 thrombectomy service, and the introduction of the Rapid Access Neurology Assessment (RANA).

We have been recognised for our high‑quality service, including achieving Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence status for the care of patients with brain tumours, and recognition by Eurospine as a centre of excellence for spinal surgery. We have also received Anaesthesia Clinical Services Accreditation from the Royal College of Anaesthetists, Neuromuscular Centre of Clinical Excellence for Adults from the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, and accreditation by UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) for the Neuroscience Laboratories.

This new strategy sets out how we will expand our services further and will continue to innovate, research and develop. We also highlight what the key initiatives will be over the next three years, and how we will further develop our services across our regions, as well as developing national neuroscience services.

We will work in partnership with the emerging Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System (ICS), cementing our unique position as a key specialist partner within that system.

Our strategy aligns with national, regional and local system plans, including acute and primary care services, along with the voluntary and third sector, linking in with the Cheshire and Merseyside ICS’ place‑based plans and those of One Liverpool, North Wales, and across Merseyside.

In developing this strategy, we involved staff from across the Trust, patients and carers, the voluntary sector, support groups, our Governors and members, and representatives from partner trusts, primary care and the ICS. There has been positive engagement from staff and stakeholders, who clearly hold The Walton Centre dear to their hearts. We will continue to listen and engage, and use that feedback to further influence our plans as we implement our strategy.