Health bosses to develop plans for one Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group

John Turner, senior accountable officer for the county’s four CCGs, revealed that officials felt the “time was right” to move towards a single organisation.

The region currently has four CCGs which include Lincolnshire West, Lincolnshire East, South Lincolnshire and South West Lincolnshire.

Mr Turner told a Health Scrutiny Panel for Lincolnshire meeting yesterday (Wednesday) that the plans are still in the “early stages”.

“I’m happy to share with the committee that the CCGs now feel that the time is right for us to develop one CCG serving the whole county,” he said. 

“We feel that the time is right and it is the next natural step, but it is in the very early stages.

“It is work that is certainly getting going.”

Mr Turner was appointed senior accountable officer for the four CCGs back in April in a move to help the organisations “work closely for the benefit of patients”.

He had previously been accountable officer for South and South West Lincolnshire CCGs.

As part of the role, Mr Turner is expected to create a single executive team to serve the four organisations.

Health bosses had previously proposed plans to work together to “simplify decisions” back in July 2018.

Currently, commissioning bodies make decisions on their own services for their local area on behalf of clusters of GP practices.