Health body told restructure 'not fit for purpose'

A committee member said a planned restructure was "not fit for purpose"

A committee has threatened to get the government involved in a planned restructure of the body overseeing Oxfordshire's health services.

The Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) has proposed the removal of dedicated "place directors" for each county.

Oxfordshire's Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) has said it will refer the restructure to the Health Secretary if key concerns are not addressed.

BOB ICB said the proposals would see a "dedicated focus" retained for each of the three areas it covers.

The restructure comes as the care board tries to save 30% of its running costs.

At at a meeting on Friday, members of the scrutiny committee expressed anger that they had not been informed about the changes until the very end of a consultation, which finishes on August 4.

Hannah Iqbal, the chief strategy and partnership officer at BOB ICB, apologised for the lack of engagement but said that the situation was urgent.

She said: "We're in financial crisis... like many systems we're struggling to remain on plan and we need to make some significant changes to how the NHS is run and delivered across our patch."

'Not fit for purpose'

Committee member and Conservative councillor Nick Leverton said NHS staff members were concerned about the changes.

"You're putting a structure in that is not fit for purpose," he said.

"The people at the coal face have said as much. They're not stupid people, they're not daft - they are experts in their own right."

Liberal Democrat MP for Didcot & Wantage Olly Glover said he was worried that cutting the "place director" for Oxfordshire would mean projects lose their momentum.

"The Oxfordshire Director of Place has helped to prioritise and make the case for the desperately needed and long-overdue GP surgery on Didcot's Great Western Park," he said.

"It is not at all clear to me how the new restructure is going to give reassurance that the promises already given to Didcot, Wantage & Grove will be kept."

Nick Broughton, interim chief executive at BOB ICB, said teams would continue to co-ordinate "place-based programmes and priorities".

He added: "Our revised operating model retains dedicated resource focused on each of our three places: Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West."

"In the revised proposals for the ICB staff structures, we retain resources that have a dedicated focus on each of our three places through a very senior manager role and senior lead dedicated to each place."

The committee said it would refer the matter to government, unless its concerns were addressed before 18 August.