This is the third of our articles.
The Integrated Care Board is the organisation responsible for the NHS side of services and plays three key roles. These are:
- to develop a plan for how healthcare services will be delivered across NW London (this is called the Joint Forward Plan) and to set out what this means for different services – e.g. mental healthcare or primary care – and to contract for these services.
- to coordinate delivery of healthcare services to ensure a more integrated offer for residents and patients. This means working at a local level (each Borough) to ensure that, in particular, primary care, mental healthcare and community care all work closely together and draw on acute sector specialist expertise where required.
- to monitor and assure performance across the healthcare system – looking at how well we are improving health and reducing inequalities in health, ensure consistently high quality care and measuring and reviewing productivity of care delivery and financial performance
The Integrated Care Board is ultimately accountable to government (acting on behalf of local residents and patients) and NHS England.
The board of the Integrated Care Board (ICB) includes our statutory board members (those positions we are required to have by law): Rob Hurd, Chief Executive Officer; Steven Bloomer, Chief Financial Officer; Charlotte Benjamin, Chief Medical Officer; and Jennifer Roye, Chief Nursing Officer (Interim). Along with leaders from the wider NHS. This includes Lesley Watts, Chief Executive Officer of Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, Clare Murdoch (CEO of Central and Northwest London Mental Health Foundation Trust) and Genevieve Small (GP in Harrow). And there are also three voting places on the board for local authorities
Around every three months we hold a board meeting in-public. Although, residents cannot participate in meetings they can observe them. Residents can also submit questions relevant to the agenda, some are answered in the meetings; others receive written responses.
Keep an eye on our news section, and our meetings calendar pages to see when our future meetings are.
Dr Penny Dash is ICB Board chair. She sees the role of the Board as being there to ensure that services are changing to meet the changing healthcare needs of local residents. As part of this work NW London ICB is working closely with community and voluntary sector organisations, as well as wider residents and patients.
Dr Dash says “we would encourage residents to attend our board meetings, and give feedback in various ways, including through formal routes like board questions, but also informally in conversations with members of our Engagement team, who you will regularly see out and out in your area.
Next week we will start focusing on NHS NW London’s committees.