Wrightington, Wigan & Leigh NHS Foundation Trust


your hospitals, your health, our priority

About Us

Our aim is the continuous improvement of services and facilities for patients, staff and visitors.

In order to meet our aims we channel our efforts into five guiding principles. These five principles underpin every aspect of our work both within the Trust and within the community as a whole.

In addition to our guiding principles, our mission statement is clear " Our Patients are at the Heart of Everything we do".		 A Trust Surgeon in Theatre

Our Guiding principles

The principles are:

  • Provide effective, responsive services of high quality
  • Ensure that services are integrated and co-ordinated
  • Ensure that the staff feel valued and to make the best use of their abilities
  • Use our resources efficiently
  • Make our services locally accessible as far as possible

The services provided by the Trust vary from site to site but will include the following:

  • Acute Medicine and Coronary Care
  • Acute Surgery and Intensive Care
  • Womens Services
  • Child Health
  • Care of the Elderly and Rehabilitation
  • Ear, Nose and Throat, Ophthalmology and Dental Services
  • Accident and Emergency and Minor Injuries
  • Musculoskeletal Directorate
  • Clinical Support Services including Pathology, Pharmacy and Radiology

How we fit into the NHS Structure

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust is part of the National Health Service (NHS).  We are one of hundreds of NHS Trusts comprising the NHS.  A full list of Trusts can be found by visiting the NHS Choices website.

The Trust is a major acute Trust serving the people of the Borough of Wigan.  Innovative and forward thinking, the Trust is dedicated to providing the best possible healthcare for the local population of over 300,000.

The Trust is committed to designing services around the needs of patients and for patients to be cared for as close to their home as possible.  Operating across 3 hospital sites, a state-of-the-art outpatients centre and also working from offices at Bryan House and Buckingham Row in Wigan town centre, the Trust has 758 inpatient beds and invests over £200 million each year in a broad range of highly regarded general and specialist acute services.

Foundation Trusts are a new type of NHS Hospital Trust operated by local management, staff and members of the public, tailoring services to the needs of the local population.  As a Foundation Trust we have been given much more financial and operational freedom, but we remain within the NHS and its performance inspection system.  Foundation Trusts have come to represent the government's commitment to de-centralising the control of public services.

The Trust is geographically located within the NHS Northwest boundary.  Our services are predominantly commissioned by NHS Ashton, Leigh and Wigan (Primary Care Trust) but our specialist orthopaedic services are commissioned from Primary Care Trusts from across the country.

The NHS is funded by the taxpayer.  This means it is accountable to Parliament.  It is managed by the Department of Health - which is directly responsible to the Secretary of State for Health.


Website Link Visit the Department of Health website


This has links to a wide range of documents incorporating 'national strategies' about how the NHS is managed.