By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Health authorities in Gloucestershire face non-clinical staff cuts amid a shake-up which could see them join with neighbouring counties.
A national blueprint has been published setting out changes to the function of integrated care boards which will see responsibilities transferred to neighbourhood providers and NHS regions.
Integrated care boards, replaced clinical commissioning groups in 2022 to plan and arrange health services for their population, holding responsibility for the performance and oversight of NHS services within their footprint.
Gloucestershire currently has its own ICB but health bosses were told on May 8 that this could soon change as it is quite a small organisation.
There is also a drive from central government to reduce the running costs of ICBs by around 50 per cent and to cut its non-clinical leadership by half, a Gloucesterhsire Hospitals NHS Trust board was told at their meeting at Sandford Education Centre.
Hospitals chief executive Kevin McNamara said the changes are a really significant thing the county is embarking upon.
“The shape and size of ICBs has a direct relevance to us,” he said. “We are part of the Gloucestershire ICB, one of the smaller ICBs in the country.
“Discussions are underway around determining how ICBs should be clustering and coming together over the course over the next number of months.”
He said NHS England have published guidance clearing up roles and responsibilities of health authorities.
And a blueprint sets out what the core responsibilities of ICBs and what should be moved to regional level, passed to local providers or should remain in an ICB.
He said there will be significant headcount reductions expected as a result of the changes.
“There will be human impact on all of those,” he said. “We are working closely with ICB and Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust colleagues to work our way through this.”
He said they have a vacancy freeze for non-clinical roles in the organisation unless they have a direct bearing on patient or staff safety or are business critical.
“It’s pretty fast moving,” he said. “It feels like there is new guidance coming out every few days.”
Mr McNamara also said the NHS could be more efficient and said in Gloucestershire some of the corporate back office functions are triplicated.
Professor in Health and Care Education Sally Moyle asked if health chiefs were taking into account the ongoing discussions and changes regarding local government reorganisation and devolution.
“Is there an eye on the future around the strategic changes around the devolved authorities?”
Mr McNamara confirmed that the health services are making sure future configurations of health services are not “boxed in” by what is happening in local authorities.
The NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board said in a statement that any structural changes to the ICBs will not affect the current day to day provision of health services.
And it said the board will continue to have a critical role to play as strategic commissioners, working to improve health, reduce inequalities and improve access to more consistently high-quality healthcare.
“ICBs will also be central to realising the ambitions that will be set out in the 10 Year Health Plan,” a spokesperson said.
“In order to meet our more focused strategic commissioning role and the requirement to reduce our organisational costs, the ICB footprint is likely to be larger in the future, but it will be crucial to retain strong ‘place’ based arrangements and partnerships at a local level.
“Discussions are underway. Close working and alignment with local government is an important consideration in a process led by NHS England.
“Any organisational (structural) changes to ICBs will not affect current day to day provision of local health services in people’s homes, GP surgeries, communities and hospitals.”