GPs in Sandwell vote to scrap plans to split CCG

The doctors had been asked whether the Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) should split - which had been described as the biggest reorganisation in the region in eight years.

Bosses at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust have welcomed the decision – after they had expressed concerns over the proposals, which could have further delayed the £350 million Midland Metropolitan Hospital.

But at a meeting on Wednesday(26), the CCG's governing body heard that 71 per cent of GP members had chosen to remain as a single CCG covering Sandwell, Perry Barr and Ladywood. The governing body will discuss the impact of the vote on local healthcare at its meeting next week.

CCG accountable officer Andy Williams said: "While our commissioning boundary remains the same, this does not mean business as usual. As a CCG we must continue to develop robust relationships with our health and local authority partners across Birmingham and the Black Country to ensure we can continue to improve healthcare for local people in Sandwell, Ladywood and Perry Barr.

"This includes delivering our drive for stronger GP services and the development of the Midland Metropolitan Hospital, supported by services that are more appropriately delivered at scale across Birmingham and the Black Country."

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust chairman, Richard Samuda, said: "We welcome the clear and decisive decision by local primary care leaders to retain the integrity of the Integrated Care model that we have been building for some years in the two places covered by the Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG.

"Those places differ but have very much in common, including the vision to improve acute care and invest in primary and mental health care which is at the heart of the Midland Met development.

"The CCG process has clearly given all stakeholders a chance to express their views and we now need to move forward on a shared basis."

Toby Lewis, trust chief executive, added: "It is important to recognise that whilst well over 90 per cent of western Birmingham practices supported the SWB option, most institutional stakeholders elsewhere in the city expressed dissatisfaction with the current arrangements. Through our place based alliances, better working across borders on public health, and through both STPs we need to ensure that that concern is addressed by actions.

"Likewise a minority of practices in Sandwell expressed a preference to stand alone within the Black Country and we need to make sure that the creation of the Care Alliance in the borough, and the support given to Primary Care Networks, addresses those ambitions.

"The trust’s strong and consistent view is that relationships will matter more than structures in building a sustainable care system for over 700,000 people, and we look forward to working with all concerned to ensure that those relationships are founded in shared values and a now settled structure. Now that organisational form is sorted out, let’s build shared teams for our common purpose.”