In October 2011, in preparation for planned government changes, NHS North West, alongside NHS Yorkshire and Humberside and NHS North East became a part of the NHS North of England SHA cluster - a temporary administrative merger to manage the North of England health economy until the planned dissolution of SHAs in March 2013.
The merger initially retained all staff but merged the three separate boards into one.
The authority closed on 31 March 2013 as part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
In October 2011, in preparation for planned government changes, the 24 Primary Care Trusts were organised under five sub-regional clusters: Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cheshire & Wirral, and Cumbria.
The initial effect of this clustering was again to telescope the number of separate boards whilst retaining most staff initially in their current roles as new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) were set up and began to assume commissioning responsibilities.