ACUTE services will be merged between the Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, it has been announced.

The NHS say the "stronger partnership between neighbouring NHS trusts" will help tackle the long-standing challenges of delivering healthcare for the Isle of Wight and claim it is "the logical next step".

A statement said: "All partners are ambitious for the Isle of Wight and want to ensure that Islanders, as well as those visiting the Island, receive the best possible care and health outcomes.

"Operating many fragile services, as the trust currently does, puts this ambition at risk."

Together, Island and other Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System partners, have been exploring how services on the Isle of Wight could be better organised to ensure "the improvement of recent years continues, and that healthcare on the island is made sustainable for the long-term".

A strategic plan for the future of services on the Isle of Wight includes the recent review of community and mental health services across Hampshire and Isle of Wight, to understand how to better meet the demands of the future and how organisations might work better together to meet those demands.

In parallel, partners have been exploring the best way to ensure acute hospital services on the Island can be sustainable and how the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service can strengthen the partnerships they have with South Central Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust.

Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, with the backdrop of a long history of working together, entered into an Acute Services Partnership in 2020 to address the clinical and financial sustainability of small and fragile hospital services on the Isle of Wight.

Since its creation, the partnership say they have delivered improvements in services on the Island including Stroke, Cardiology, and Urology.

They say bringing the two organisations closer together will mean they can better respond to the challenges facing the NHS and the changing needs of the people they serve.

The next step is to confirm a single chief executive with a mandate to create a single executive team and single clinical leadership approach across the two trusts.

Melloney Poole, chairman at Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust said: “Our two organisations are taking the next step in our Acute Services Partnership which will bring teams from both Trusts more closely together, while remaining two separate, statutory organisations.

“Working together and in collaboration with our partners is the only viable way to ensure safe, sustainable, and compassionate services for the Isle of Wight.

“We will continue to listen to the voices and needs of our communities and ensure they continue to be involved in the development of our services and the care they receive.

“Creating a single leadership team and establishing shared clinical leadership will allow us to better plan and deliver services for a combined population of 800,000 people across Portsmouth, southeast Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight.”

Maggie MacIsaac, chief executive at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board said: “In recent years health services on the Isle of Wight have seen positive change. Many of these improvements have been achieved through working in close partnership between the Island and mainland organisations.

“To ensure the sustainability of all healthcare services on the Island we are working together across organisations and geographies.

"This ethos of partnership working has been our guiding principle over many years.

"Bringing the Isle of Wight Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust closer together continues this collaboration, prioritises quality of care and maintains the patient at the centre of our plans.”