Jobs could be lost amid plans for NHS mergers

Jobs could be lost amid plans for health authorities in Gloucestershire to be merged with those in neighbouring counties.

A national blueprint has been published setting out changes to the function of Integrated Care Boards (ICB) which would see responsibilities go to neighbourhood providers and NHS regions.

Gloucestershire currently has its own ICB but health bosses were told on 8 May that this could soon change.

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive Kevin McNamara said a significant reductions of non-clinical staff was expected.

Central government wants to reduce the running costs of ICBs by around 50 per cent and cut non-clinical leadership by half, a Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust board was told at a meeting last week.

Mr McNamara said: "There will be human impact. We are working closely with ICB and Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust colleagues to work our way through this."

He said there was a vacancy freeze for non-clinical roles in the organisation unless they had a direct bearing on patient or staff safety or were business critical, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"It's pretty fast moving," he said.

He explained that over the next few months more would be known as discussions about how ICBs should be clustered was ongoing.

NHS England has published guidance showing the roles and responsibilities of health authorities and ICBs.

Mr McNamara said the NHS could be more efficient and said in Gloucestershire some of the corporate back office functions were triplicated.

The NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board said in a statement that any structural changes to the ICBs would not affect the current day to day provision of health services.

It said the board would continue to have a critical role as strategic commissioners working to improve health, reduce inequalities and improve healthcare access.

A spokesperson added: "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."

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