Health commissioners in Brighton and Hove have been given a vote of confidence by NHS bosses and taken out of “special measures”.
The announcement came a month after the Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was rated as a “good” organisation.
CCG bosses said that the decision to entrust more of the key decisions to local NHS staff would free them up to focus more keenly on improving services on the ground.
A year ago the CCG was rated as “inadequate” and deemed to be “failing to discharge its functions”.
As a result it was required to follow “legal directions” – the equivalent of being placed in special measures – and a new top team was brought in.
They included the accountable officer Adam Doyle and the clinical chair David Supple.
Mr Doyle said: “To get out of legal directions has not been easy and we have had to change a lot of things within the organisation very quickly.
“This has been tough but our staff have risen to the challenge and I would like to thank them all for their continued hard work and for the support of our partners across the local health system.”
The CCG had to satisfy NHS bosses about progress in five areas – improving leadership, reviewing governance, developing a capacity and capability action plan, developing a credible commissioning plan and coming up with a plan to improve treatment and A&E waiting times.
Mr Doyle said: “Alongside the changes we have been making within the CCG, we have also been working hard on plans to transform and improve local services across the city for the future.
“We will now be putting all our energy into developing and delivering these plans, alongside the large amount of public engagement we are doing as part of our Big Health and Care Conversation, to ensure local residents continue to have access to sustainable services for years to come.”
Dr Supple said: “This is very positive news for our organisation but it is also good news for our patients as we can now concentrate more freely on what improvements we can make to meet the needs of the local population.
“A particular focus for us will be around improving and transforming primary care which involves GP and other non-hospital services.
“For example, we want to make GP practices across the city more resilient for the future by looking at new ways of working and giving GPs access to greater support.
“We will now be working with our members and the public to develop plans on how we can best achieve this.”
