Warwickshire’s clinical commissioning groups could merge to ‘streamline’ services and reduce costs

Members of South Warwickshire CCG have already voted in favour of the move and next month will see a vote by the Warwickshire North and Coventry and Rugby groups.

Their agreement would see the new unified CCG in place for April 2021.

Gillian Entwistle, chief officer for the South Warwickshire CCG, updated councillors at this week’s [MON] Coventry and Warwickshire joint health overview and scrutiny committee.

She said: “We are considering options for the future and the decision rests with our members - our GP practice members.

“We want to be able to streamline our resources which will enable us to have cohesive planning.”

As part of a presentation to the committee she listed a number of benefits of a merger which included improved efficiency, sharing workload and expertise, offering better value and having a single voice for both partners and the public.

“We also want to reduce our spend on management in the system by 20 per cent next year. It is a big ask - over £1m - and has been set nationally,” she added.