RIVAL hospitals in Bolton, Wigan and Salford — who were competing against each other to become a “super hospital” — have formed a new alliance, The Bolton News can reveal.

The Royal Bolton has been competing with Wigan to become a specialist site as part of the Healthier Together review.

But behind the scenes, health chiefs from Bolton, Wigan and Salford have been in discussions for the last three months, devising an “alternative option” to those put forward by Healthier Together.

Andrew Foster, chief executive of the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, confirmed the alliance at the Wigan Health and Wellbeing Board yesterday.

Mr Foster termed the new faction the “north west sector” of Greater Manchester.

He said: “This process is not a flash in the pan. It has been going on for a long time.

“It was set back by Healthier Together who felt that the structure needed four or five specialist hospitals.

“This required Wigan and Bolton to compete with each other in the north west sector.

“Because of this it was not easy to collaborate with each other. However we have got past that and three months ago we set up more formal arrangements.”

A final draft of the new proposals was set to be approved by health chiefs last night.

It is understood the three trusts want to pool their 32 consultant surgeons together to carry out emergency and elective general surgery.

Mr Foster said they hoped to start making the changes within the next year.

He added: “In terms of other trusts in Salford and Bolton, they are not here to speak for themselves.

“The Bolton chief executive supports this decision unequivocally. Salford are supportive of this idea too.”

The alliance comes less than two weeks before the Healthier Together consultation is due to end.

The proposed Healthier Together changes will see either four or five “super hospitals” created.

Oldham, Salford or Manchester Royal Infirmary have already been earmarked to be specialist sites.

The remaining options are Bolton, Wythenshawe, the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan and Stepping Hill in Stockport.

Su Long, chief officer of Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "No decisions have been made about the proposals, and we welcome all proposals or submissions to the Healthier Together consultation from our providers.

“We are encouraged that our hospitals are discussing this together, and considering how they can collaborate to deliver a single service and improve standards at all of our hospitals, which is what we are aiming to achieve."

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and Healthier Together were not available for comment.