Public frequently asked questions (FAQs)

You will continue to receive care from the same professionals in your community or at home. Over time, the merger will help us improve services, introduce new technology, and make care more efficient. Longer term, you may see benefits such as shorter waits and more support outside of appointments.

The merger itself will not immediately reduce waiting times. However, bringing services together gives us opportunities to share best practice and improve efficiency, which may help reduce waits over time.

Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust and Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust will merge to form one organisation in April 2026. This means we now work as a single trust with shared leadership and systems.

Subject to NHS England approval, the merged trust will be called East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust. This new organisation brings together expertise from both former trusts to provide high-quality community services across Norfolk, Waveney and Cambridgeshire.

The Boards of both trusts agreed to merge following a period of working together as an NHS group. This decision was made to strengthen community services and improve care for patients.

While using resources wisely is important, the main reason for merging is to improve patient care and make services more resilient. Financial efficiencies are a benefit, but better care is our priority.

The biggest benefit will be scale. A larger organisation can:

• get better deals on purchases

• make recruitment easier as its influence and reputation grow

• offer services more efficiently

• be more resilient

We expect the merger to give community services a stronger voice locally and nationally. It will also bring more diversity and depth to our decision-making. By learning from more teams and sharing best practice, we can improve quality more quickly.

With a growing number of people needing care at home and in the community, especially as our population ages, community services need to be more influential and impactful. This merger will help us achieve that.

Your data will remain secure and confidential. We are working to bring systems together so clinicians can access the right information to provide the best care, while maintaining strict data protection standards.