New board overseeing Brighton and Hove health services to hold first meeting

The new board overseeing health services in Brighton and Hove meets for the first time on Thursday (28 July).

The NHS Sussex board includes representatives from NHS Brighton and Hove, also known as Brighton and Hove City Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Under the coalition government’s NHS reforms the Brighton and Hove PCT has formed a “cluster” with West Sussex, Hastings and Rother and East Sussex Downs and Weald PCTs.

PCTs, which commission and monitor hospital services and other local health services, are due to be abolished and replaced by GP consortiums.

The NHS Sussex board’s first meeting is due to take place in the Spotlight Room at The Hawth in Crawley, starting at 2pm.

It is open to the public.

Amanda Fadero, chief executive of NHS Sussex, said: “I would like to pay tribute to the boards of each of our constituent primary care trusts, who have played such an important role in creating the right foundations.

Determined

“There is still much work to be done but NHS Sussex is determined to make a truly positive difference to our NHS.”

Denise Harker, the chairman of NHS Sussex, said: “This is an important step in making the NHS reforms a reality.

“Each of our board members has improving patient care and experience at the forefront of our minds while we lead the NHS through this period of change.

“We are all very much looking forward to working with clinicians, patients and colleagues to make the NHS in Sussex the very best it can be.”

NHS Sussex is not a statutory organisation but had powers delegated to it by NHS Brighton and Hove and the other three PCTs at their respective board meetings in May.

The agenda and related papers for the board meeting on Thursday can be found here.

The next meeting of the board is scheduled to take place at Hove Town Hall in Norton Road, Hove, on Tuesday 20 September at 1pm.