Three CCGs have announced plans to merge, creating a £1.15bn health economy in the west of England.
NHS Bristol, NHS North Somerset, NHS South Gloustershire CCGs, announced the merger in a statement, which claimed the formal merger would be the ‘next logical step’ after the CCGs began sharing an executive earlier this year.
Julia Ross was appointed as the new chief executive of the CCGs in February from her position as head of NHS North West Surrey CCG.
Three CCGs have announced plans to merge, creating a £1.15bn health economy in the west of England.
NHS Bristol, NHS North Somerset, NHS South Gloustershire CCGs, announced the merger in a statement, which claimed the formal merger would be the ‘next logical step’ after the CCGs began sharing an executive earlier this year.
Julia Ross was appointed as the new chief executive of the CCGs in February from her position as head of NHS North West Surrey CCG.
The three CCGs are part of the Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire sustainability and transformation partnership and are facing a deficit of £305.5m in 2020 if changes are not made to the health economy.
The STP was rated as ‘needs most improvement’, the lowest category, by NHS England in July.
The CCGs said in a joint statement that the merger would eliminate ‘the administrative burden that comes from running three statutory organisations’.
They said: ‘Operating a single administrative and governance function would enable us to focus more of our people and resources on delivering improved services and better patient experience.
‘A merger would also help to progress our work to create a stronger, clearer and more consistent commissioning ‘voice’ for our area, built on the strong foundations of locality-based, GP-led commissioning, and better able to drive forward the changes needed to deliver the resilient and sustainable NHS services that local people need.’
CCGs said they would be consulting on the merger with their membership over the next month.
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