Troubled health economy’s five CCGs to merge

The move represents the latest in a recent string of local commissioner-side consolidations across the English NHS as health economies bid to become integrated care systems by April 2021.

The five CCGs — Great Yarmouth and Waveney, Norwich, North Norfolk, South Norfolk, and West Norfolk — cover a £1.6bn health economy which faces some of the biggest challenges across the whole NHS.

The five CCGs will be renamed Norfolk and Waveney CCG when the merger goes ahead in April.

The announcement follows Nottinghamshire’s six CCGs and a further 15 other CCGs across the south west, north west, and the north east also having merger plans approved by NHSE/I this month.

Local clinical chairs and chief officers announced system leaders had given the merger the green light in a letter sent to staff on 16 October (see attached).

The letter also said: “There are many other benefits, such as making better use of our resources and reducing the amount of money we spend on administration so that we can spend more on patient care.

“To this end we are also creating a single management team, currently working across all five existing CCGs, to reduce duplication and improve efficiency.”

It added: “An important element of this is the creation of locality teams to ensure we continue a strong locally-focussed approach to commissioning health care.”