Healthcare in Northumberland, since 2013, is the responsibility of the Northumberland, Newcastle Gateshead and North Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Groups.
Contents
History
From 1947 to 1974 NHS services in Northumberland were managed by Newcastle Regional Hospital Board. In 1974 the Boards were abolished and replaced by Regional Health Authorities. Northumberland came under the Northern RHA. Regions were reorganised in 1996 and Northumberland came under the Northern and Yorkshire Regional Health Authority. Northumberland from 1974 had one District health authority. A Primary care trust, the Northumberland Care Trust, was established covering the whole the county in 2002. It was managed by the North East Strategic health authority from 2002 until 2013.
Northumberland CCG took on the responsibilities of the former PCT on 1 April 2013. Steven Mason, chief executive of Northumberland County Council was appointed its accountable officer in January 2017, replacing the former chief clinical officer Alistair Blair, who is to lead a new accountable care organisation.
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear formed a sustainability and transformation plan area in March 2016 with Stephen Eames, the Chief Executive of North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust as its leader.
Commissioning
North Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group was rated as inadequate by NHS England and entered into a management arrangement with Newcastle Gateshead CCG in January 2017.
Development
Northumbria is a vanguard area for the development of integrated primary and acute care systems as proposed in the Five Year Forward View. It has been given £8.3 million as a transformation fund and plans to create a single ‘accountable care organisation’ for the county which would become operational in 2017. This would be the first in the NHS and would take over most of the functions of the clinical commissioning group. It would also undermine the principles of the NHS internal market.
Primary care
There are GP practices in Northumberland. Out-of-hours services are provided by Northern Doctors Urgent Care.
Community Care
Palliative care is provided by HospiceCare which has two centres in Alnwick and Berwick.
NHS providers
Mental health services in the county are provided by Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust. Acute hospital services are provided by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. The North East Ambulance Service covers the county.
Healthwatch Northumberland is an organisation set up under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to act as a voice for patients.