By Gillian Ellison

Last updated at 11:54, Thursday, 04 October 2012

THREE people have been appointed to the governing body of a powerful group which will be formally in control of the county’s health budget from next year.

Title
Author
Copyright

Description

The Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is made up of 83 GP practices across the county.

Each area has its own board for deciding what services are needed locally, with Copeland’s led by Whitehaven’s Dr David Rogers.

The three lay members recently appointed to the governing body include a St Bees man; a former finance director for West Cumberland Hospital and the chief superintendent for Greater Manchester Police.

They will fulfil a similar role to that carried out by non-executive directors on other NHS Trusts and receive remuneration of around £7,800 per year.

Les Hanley, of St Bees, will be leading on health improvement. Mr Hanley, a former Whitehaven Grammar School pupil, worked in finance and procurement at Sellafield. He has been regional manager of the Prince’s Youth Business Trust and a non-executive director of Cumbria Probation Service.

He is now a director of the British Energy Coast Business Cluster and Age UK West Cumbria.

Peter Scott, a former finance director of North Cumbria Hospitals Trust which manages West Cumberland Hospital, has also been appointed. Mr Scott will be the group’s finance and governance lead.

Jon Rush, chief superintendent with Greater Manchester Police, lives in Cumbria and spent 24 years working for Cumbria Constabulary. His role will be ensuring the group fulfils its role in engaging with the public.

The CCG will decide how the county’s £650million health budget is spent. It follows the decision to abolish primary care trusts early next year as part of government health reforms.

It is being assessed by the Government before it can formally take over and should find out whether it has passed its authorisation later in the year.

Other new members of the group include Anthony Woodyer, a retired surgeon and medical director from Greater Manchester who lives near Keswick. He has been appointed as secondary care consultant.

And nurse Ruth Gildert, with 30 years’ experience and now living in Cockermouth, is the nursing representative.

Chair of the group, Dr Hugh Reeve, said: “It’s important that we get a wide and experienced mix of people involved in the work we do so that we as GPs make the right decisions about how and where local health services should be delivered here in Cumbria.

“Work continues to ensure that the Cumbria’s Clinical Commissioning Group is ready to start picking up the mantle from the primary care trust, but most important of all as the NHS goes through this period of sustained change we need to continue to focus on the needs of patients, as they must be at the forefront of everything the health service in Cumbria does.”

First published at 11:12, Thursday, 04 October 2012
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk