Restructure of health services in the South East
Changes are proposed to the way that NHS services in the South East are managed.
How these changes will benefit residents
These changes are aimed at reducing management costs and unnecessary bureaucracy. This could have the following advantages for residents:
- money saved on management salaries could be spent on improving frontline health and social care services for residents
- health and social care services, especially specialist services, could be spread more evenly across the county so it would be easier and quicker for residents to get the help they need, wherever they live
- improved co-ordination of health and social care services.
The proposed changes will affect:
- Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) – which are responsible for the delivery of local health care including GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacists
- Strategic Health Authorities – which are responsible for developing and monitoring health services in their region, as well as ensuing that national priorities are met locally
- Ambulance Trusts – which are responsible for providing ambulance and paramedic services and their emergency control centres.
How the changes will affect East Sussex
These changes affect East Sussex in the following ways:
- a reduction in the number of PCTs from four to either two or one. We favour one PCT and will be seeking reassurance that any management savings are diverted to frontline services.
- the amalgamation of Sussex, Surrey and Kent Ambulance Trusts. We support this change.
- the creation of either:
- one Strategic Health Authority for the entire South East region
- or two Strategic Health Authorities – one for Kent, Medway, Surrey and Sussex and another for the Thames Valley, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. We favour two Strategic Health Authorities.
Further information about these changes, and why we recommend them, is detailed in the Cabinet agenda item attached below.
Have your say about these changes
A consultation on these changes started on 4 December 2005 and ran until 22 March 2006. You can find out more on the NHS South East Coast website.
