Significant change for how NHS will be managed locally amid 50 per cent cuts

Yahoo

17-05-2025

Decisions on health care could be made by a new care board spanning from Christchurch in the east to Exmoor in the west, and encompassing Bath, Wiltshire and Swindon, could all be made by one body.
Integrated Care Boards make commissioning and spending decisions on health care for differing areas across England including hospitals, GPs' surgeries and pharmacies
Decisions made in Swindon and Wiltshire are made by the Bath & North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB.
But they have all been instructed to make 50 per cent cost savings after reforms to the NHS in England were announced by the government earlier this year.
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The Local Democracy Reporter understands that a briefing to regional NHS staff said that initially the BSW ICB would 'cluster' with the boards for Somerset and Dorset to create a much larger area.
The plans must be submitted to NHS England by the end of the month before being forwarded to Whitehall for a final decision.
The briefing added: 'Once given the go-ahead, reshaped ICBs are expected to come together under 'clustering' arrangement from later this year with a view to formal merger from either April 2026 or April 2027.'
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Other regional clusters might be Gloucestershire ICB joining with the Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire Board, while the boards for Cornwall & the Scilly Isles and Devon are also expected to cluster together.
A spokesperson for the Bath & North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB said: 'All ICBs in England are being asked to significantly reduce running costs and shift to a more strategic role, with different responsibilities for us and other parts of our health and care system.
'This is part of the wider nationally-driven NHS reform programme to reduce management costs and focus more money on the front line.
'BSW ICB is exploring plans to cluster with Somerset and Dorset ICBs. This proposal is still at an early stage and no decisions have been made.'
Both Dorset and Somerset ICBs were contacted for comment. A spokesperson for the Dorset board said it was unable to comment, and the Somerset ICB has not responded to that request.
The BSW ICB has only been in existence since 2022. Before that, commissioning decisions were made by Care Commissioning Groups, which operated separately in each area.
They were working together for nearly two years before voting to merge to form an ICB in 2019.