Manchester — The largest teaching hospital in New England is planning a “clinical affiliation” with a Manchester hospital to increase access to specialized services for southern New Hampshire residents.

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, a unit of the $11-billion a year Partners HealthCare system, and Catholic Medical Center in Manchester announced the deal on Wednesday.

The new affiliation will provide some CMC patients with access to Massachusetts General’s addiction and advanced heart and stroke care, as well as to a program that treats Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for stress disorders and traumatic brain injuries, according to a release from the hospitals.

Officials noted that the hospitals are about an hour apart. CMC patients will get priority at Massachusetts General, and the Boston hospital’s doctors will train physicians in New Hampshire. The hospitals will remain independent, but will share resources.

In April, Massachusetts General agreed to acquire Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, N.H.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock launched what it called an affiliation bid with the 330-bed CMC in 2009, but dropped the proposal two years later after New Hampshire regulators objected to its potential impact on the Manchester hospital’s governance and role as an independent charity and questioned how it would affect costs.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said the transaction was more suitably termed an “acquisition” of CMC by Dartmouth-Hitchcock.

The board of Elliot Health System, which has a hospital in Manchester, voted this spring to explore an affiliation with D-H.

D-H Chief Executive Jim Weinstein said this week that quest was still underway: “We continue to talk with Elliot.”

Valley News staff writer Rick Jurgens contributed to this report.