West-wide health care board plan in pipeline

Decisions on health care, from hospitals to GPs’ surgeries to pharmacies, for a swathe of southern and south-west England from Christchurch in the east to Exmoor in the west, and encompassing Bath, Wiltshire and Swindon, could all be made by one body.

- Aled Thomas Local democracy reporter

Integrated Care Boards make commissioning and spending decisions on health care for differing areas across England - at the moment decisions made in Swindon and Wiltshire are made by the Bath & North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB.

But they have all been instructed to make 50 per cent cost savings after reforms to NHS in England announced by the government earlier this year.

The Local Democracy Reporter understands that a briefing to regional NHS staff said that initially the BSW ICB would “cluster” with the boards for Somerset and Dorset to create a much larger area.