Transforming Care Together

Transforming Care Together is our shared strategy for the next five years. It sets out an ambitious vision for how The Royal Wolverhampton and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trusts will work together to improve health and care for our communities by 2031.

Healthcare is changing. Demand continues to grow, people are living longer with more complex health needs, and there are significant inequalities in health outcomes across our communities. At the same time, advances in technology create new opportunities to improve how care is accessed and delivered.

Our strategy recognises we must transform care, ensuring services are built around people, communities, and partnerships rather than organisations and buildings.

To deliver exceptional care together to improve the health and wellbeing of our communities.

By 2031, we will be digitally enabled, community-focused organisations delivering exceptional quality care closer to home where clinically appropriate. We will empower our staff to innovate and excel, while ensuring hospitals focus on those patients who need emergency, complex and specialist care.

• Care – excellent clinical outcomes, delivered closer to home.
• Colleagues – a supported, empowered workforce able to do its best work.
• Collaboration – working seamlessly with GPs, councils, charities, and other partners.
• Communities – services designed around local people, tackling health inequalities.

Over the next five years, we will move more care into community settings, helping people access support closer to where they live and reducing the need for hospital attendance wherever possible. We will create neighbourhood health teams that bring together health, care, and community services for local people.

We will also invest in prevention, helping people manage their health and wellbeing earlier and supporting those living with frailty, long-term conditions and complex care needs before their health deteriorates.

Our strategy will transform how people access services by modernising pathways and embracing digital solutions. Patients will increasingly benefit from digital triage, online appointment management, virtual consultations where appropriate and redesigned pathways that reduce delays and improve access to diagnosis and treatment.

Through one-stop services, straight-to-test pathways, and improved co-ordination between providers, we aim to make care simpler and more responsive.

The strategy commits to significant investment in digital transformation, including electronic patient records, digital patient portals, Ambient Voice Technology, and automation where possible. These technologies will reduce administrative burden, improve productivity and support safer, more personalised care.

By 2031, patients will experience more connected services, while staff will spend less time on paperwork and more time caring for patients.

We will strengthen elective services, expand capacity, improve access to diagnostics and redesign pathways to enable faster diagnosis and treatment. Our hospitals will increasingly focus on urgent, complex and specialist care, while routine care and follow-up services will be provided in community settings wherever appropriate.

New models of outpatient care, expanded elective capacity and modern community diagnostic facilities, will help improve access and reduce waiting times for patients.

Transforming Care Together recognises that successful transformation can only be achieved through the skills, commitment, and creativity of people. We are committed to creating a culture where every voice matters, improvement becomes part of everyday practice, and staff feel psychologically safe, supported, and respected.

We will continue to invest in leadership development, quality improvement, wellbeing, engagement, and career progression opportunities. Our aim is to ensure every colleague has the support and resources needed to thrive.

By 2031, patients will experience:

• More care delivered closer to home
• Better co-ordinated services and smoother transitions between providers
• Greater control through digital access and the NHS App
• Faster diagnosis, treatment, and improved access to care

By 2031, staff will experience:

• Improved workplaces and working environments
• Better technology and simpler systems
• Greater opportunities for learning and career development
• A culture focused on wellbeing, inclusion, and continuous improvement

By working together as a Group, alongside our partners across health, care, local government, and the voluntary sector, we can create a system that delivers better outcomes, supports our workforce, tackles inequalities, and provides sustainable services for future generations.

This will be shaped and delivered by people, patients, communities, staff and partners across Wolverhampton and Walsall – creating the future everyone deserves.

Transforming Care Together – Our Strategy for 2026-2031 (PDF, 8Mb)