CEO's blog: Slashed ICB budgets and the end of NHS England
Lately, you may have seen reports of two significant changes to the health and care landscape: NHS England is being scrapped, and huge budget cuts of up to 50 per cent of running costs for Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) will be implemented.
This includes our own Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB. An Integrated Care Board (ICB) is responsible for planning, funding, and coordinating health services in a local area to improve population health, reduce inequalities, and ensure joined-up care across the NHS, local authorities, and other partners.
When talking to residents, we've picked up on some anxiety and confusion about what this means for our community. Importantly, the NHS as we know it is not being abolished; NHS England is a separate organisation to the hospitals, GPs and dentists that we use in our daily lives. In essence, NHS England is a 'management' organisation responsible for the overall direction, funding and strategy of the NHS in England.
Structural transformations and mergers of this size have a habit of becoming a distraction from the real, urgent priority of improving care for people.
The Government plan means that these NHS management functions will be absorbed into the Department of Health and Social Care over the next two years. So, most of these changes will be happening 'behind the scenes' but we’re already working with our ICB to understand what the local impact will be for us as residents, patients, and carers.
With such significant changes ongoing, there is an even greater need for patient voices and lived experience in Milton Keynes to be represented across health and care services. Structural transformations and mergers of this size have a habit of becoming a distraction from the real, urgent priority of improving care for people.
Please continue to share your experiences of health and care in MK with us. Every piece of evidence you share with us, whether it's through our Have Your Say form, at one of our many outreach events, or simply by picking up the phone to talk with us, strengthens our influence with local NHS services.
On that note, thankyou to everyone who contributed to our recent Resident's Priorities survey. We are now busy shaping our 2025-6 business plan around your feedback, so that we can deliver impact where it's needed.
