What you need to know about the new Thames Valley ICB

The way local health services are organised is officially changing from Wednesday.

BOB ICB - the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire Intergrated Care Board - is merging with Frimley ICB to become the Thames Valley ICB.

Integrated care boards decide how to spend the NHS budget in the areas they cover.

The new body says the move will reduce running costs and health inequalities, and match up more closely with changes to local authorities.

So what is the creation of the new organisation expected to achieve and how could it make a difference?

The government has told integrated care boards across the country to reduce their running costs by 50% to save the NHS money overall.

Boards across England will be required to spend no more than £19 per person.

That means local health bosses want their ICBs to run as smoothly as possible, by covering a larger geographical area.

The hope is that merging the two organsations into one will make it easier to share resources and prevent duplicating work.

If this works, then the expectation is that money is spent more efficiently and patient care improves.

A priority for the new organisation will be reducing unfair differences in healthcare between richer and poorer areas.

Dr Nick Broughton, CEO of Thames Valley ICB, says there are a number of areas which have too much variation on access to services and how those services are delivered.

One example is brain injuries rehabilitation.

"We've identified that in Oxfordshire there isn't a local service... and patients have to receive care out of the county," he says.

"We will now start to commission a new service within the county, so we have the same level of provision in Oxfordshire as we do in Buckinghamshire and Berkshire".

The hope is that the new organisation, by becoming more efficient, will mean patients will have to do less chasing when it comes to appointments.

Broughton says improvements to things like GP waiting times will not be seen immediately, but could improve as money is allocated differently by the ICB.

"People will find it easier to access all services because we're going to try and focus far more on supporting people proactively and focusing far more on prevention.

"[That will] keep people well, reduce the need for people to present to services which then will help reduce demand on primary care services [like GP surgeries] and also on our acute hospitals."

Decisions being made by fewer people for a larger area could be more efficient, but also comes with potential drawbacks.

Dr Amit Sharma, a GP and CEO of the Berkshire West Primary Care Alliance, says whilst the change could mean less chasing for patients, services may become less tailored to the needs of a specific area.

"We can't lose connection with what's happening locally," he says. "There are clinicians who deliver care close to communities like GPs, pharmacies, [or] dentists and others in voluntary sector organisations.

"We need that influence and input from local people who are involved in patient care."

Redundancies are also expected. In October, BOB ICB said it was "supporting colleagues during this difficult period".

In October, when a partial merger began, BOB ICB said it would "make the best use of financial resources and workforce, and ensure services are shaped around the needs of diverse communities".

Broughton says the new Thames Valley ICB will mean a more "consistent service" for patients.

Its success will likely depend on how quickly health bosses are able to decide on its priorities and the systems they create.

Sharma says being able to make navigating the NHS easier for people will be the true measure of the Thames Valley ICB's success.

"What [people] want... is the ability to understand what's happening with their care, whichever part of the system they're in, and not having to constantly chase.

"With the NHS app that'll help. But the systems that are commissioned by Thames Valley ICB will be critical to ensuring whether that's a reality or not."