Blackburn with Darwen is set to lead the way on health reforms that will see GPs take responsibility for commissioning healthcare and councils playing a greater role in public health.
A new health and wellbeing board will be set up in Blackburn with Darwen to promote more local control over health services and increased partnership working between the NHS, social care, public health and other services.
It is part of the NHS reforms that were confirmed in the government’s response to the White Paper consultation, Liberating the NHS: legislative framework and next steps, last week.
These will see responsibility for planning and buying health services transfer from the Care Trust to GPs and councils taking a greater health role.
The board, which will replace the Local Strategic Partnership’s health and well being partnership board, will be run by the Council and will operate in shadow form alongside the Care Trust Plus board from January until the Care Trust ceases to exist in April 2013.
Blackburn with Darwen Health and Wellbeing board members will include councillors, GP consortia repesentatives, NHS commissioners and members of the new public and patient involvement organisation Health Watch, plus the directors of public health, adults and children’s services, neighbourhood representatives and the voluntary sector.
GPs in Blackburn with Darwen plan to create a single GP consortium for the borough based on existing Care Trust and local authority boundaries, but they could also share some functions with other Pennine Lancashire consortia over time.
A shadow consortium will be formed early next year, enabling local GPs be among the first in the country to work together as a single consortium to shape local health services.
Medical director Dr Malcolm Ridgway said: “GPs in the area are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of local residents and to commission a healthcare system for Blackburn with Darwen which is effective, efficient and sustainable in the long-term.
“The government expects GP consortia to be in place from April 2012, so we will be ahead of the game in Blackburn with Darwen, with a chance to be part of and influence the GP commissioning programme nationally.”
Dominic Harrison, Director of Public Health said today: ”Blackburn with Darwen has already been making progress on this agenda and this puts us in a good position to make some rapid progress across the borough.
“What we would hope to see now is a new system that will help us improve the health and wellbeing of local citizens, make citizens feel more able to influence how the local health services are run and citizens more able than before to hold the local NHS services to account.”
