West Essex Health and Care Partnership 

West Essex Health and Care partnership logo on a purple background

The West Essex Health and Care Partnership (WEHCP) brings together local and county-wide health and care providers and commissioners with the aim to improve health outcomes for the population of west Essex.  

We work together to take joint action to improve and integrate services, to influence the wider determinants of health and to improve the sustainability of our health and care system.  Our aim:

“To help everyone in our area live long and healthy lives by supporting independence and providing seamless care”​ 

WEHCP partners include:  

  • The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) (hosts of the partnership) 
  • Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board 
  • Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) 
  • Essex County Council 
  • Primary Care Networks 
  • Epping Forest, Harlow and Uttlesford District Councils 
  • Healthwatch Essex  
  • Voluntary Sector partners: WECAN, UCAN, Rainbow Services, Voluntary Action Epping Forest, St Clare Hospice 

The partners meet regularly to design and deliver services that are based on common strategic aims for county, district and local areas. We work together to help the residents of west Essex to live healthy lives in healthy places and to ensure our services are accessible and as close to home as possible.  

We have a lot of work to do together and limited funding that we must spend wisely. We have already made a number of improvements which can be found here:

Care closer to home model of care Integrated neighbourhood teams and proactive care Care Co-ordination Centre Community Urgent Care

We have created an Integrated Delivery Plan for the next three years (2025-2028) and we have six main aims: 

  • Addressing inequalities across west Essex focusing on hypertension, childhood obesity, adult mental health, active Essex and healthy places. 
  • Reducing hospital admissions for people living with frailty by delivering proactive care close to home and urgent care in the community. 
  • Improving access to urgent care, including community urgent care services, virtual hospital (at home), improving transfers of care into residents’ homes, community hospital and social care settings. 
  • Reducing planned care waiting times, with faster diagnosis, opening the Community Diagnostic Centre and improving capacity to treat patients waiting for care. 
  • Integrating care for children, improving community services, introducing proactive care. 
  • Using our resources efficiently, delivering pro-active care closer to home, sharing premises, reviewing contracts, achieving financial balance. 

Whilst the partnership meets at a west Essex level, it is important that we design and deliver local services that meet the needs of each area and so we are setting up a locality leadership structure for Uttlesford, Harlow and Epping to ensure that the improvements are delivered and monitored in local neighbourhoods. This is aligned to the Government’s aims of neighbourhood health set out in the 10 Year Health Plan for England.

Each of our partners have active patient and resident participation groups and we also have Healthwatch Essex as a partner. We will work together this year to strengthen this participation at a west Essex level and ensure that we have patient and residents’ views in the design of services. If you would like to contact the West Essex Partnership team, please email: [email protected]

Links to our partner websites and their services can be found here: