The first meeting of the newly established NHS Sussex Board will take place at 2pm on Thursday 28 July at the Spotlight Room, The Hawth, Crawley.
Chair, Denise Harker said: “This is an important step in making the NHS reforms a reality. Each of our Board members has improving patient care and experience at the forefront of our minds while we lead the NHS through this period of change. We are all very much looking forward to working with clinicians, patients and colleagues to make the NHS in Sussex the very best it can be.”
Chief Executive, Amanda Fadero said: “I would like to pay tribute to the Boards of each of our constituent primary care trusts, who have played such an important role in creating the right foundations.
There is still much work to be done, but NHS Sussex is determined to make a truly positive difference to our NHS.”
Members of the public are welcome to observe the meeting and to ask questions at the end of the meeting.
Notes to editors
The four primary care trusts (PCTs) in Sussex are operating on a cluster arrangement as NHS Sussex. They are:
- NHS West Sussex
- NHS Hastings and Rother
- NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald
- NHS Brighton and Hove
Clusters are not statutory organisations but they have powers delegated from each of the constituent primary care trusts. NHS Sussex is accountable for delivering the statutory functions of the Sussex PCTs following delegation greed at the PCTs’ Board meetings in May.
NHS Sussex will support the new and developing commissioning groups across Sussex and help to foster relationships with local authorities as they move towards taking on new roles and responsibilities as set out in the Health and Social Care Bill.
Biographies of each of the members of the NHS Sussex Board is available here.
Board agenda and papers can be found here.
NHS reforms
The Coalition Government announced a number of reforms to the NHS in its White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, published in July 2010.
As part of these reforms, PCTs would be abolished and the majority of their functions would be passed to GP-led commissioning groups.
In January 2011, Sir David Nicholson, the chief executive of the NHS, announced the establishment of PCT clusters.
This was designed to maintain and promote capacity and capability within PCTs during the transition to GP-led commissioning groups.
Dates of future meetings
· Tuesday 20 September 2011, 1pm at Hove Town Hall, BN3 4AH
· Thursday 24 November 2011, 1pm at Friars Walk, Lewes BN7 2PB
· Tuesday 24 January 2012, 1pm, 1 The Causeway, Goring-by-Sea, Worthing BN12 6BT
· Tuesday 27 March 2012, 1pm, Weald Hall, Uckfield Civic Centre, Uckfield TN22 1AE
