REFORMS to the NHS have caused alarm for Wokingham Borough Council leaders.
The Health and Care Bill will see a new Integrated Care Board (ICB) established in April this year to cover Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB).
The creation of the ICB is part of plans to improve joint working across the NHS and local authorities to improve healthcare.
However Cllr John Halsall, leader of Wokingham Borough Council, believes that these plans could have a negative impact on residents in the borough.
“I’m on the warpath,” he said. “Healthcare has been centralised and I’m trying to make sure that our residents’ voices are still represented.
“All the good stuff that we’ve been doing with GPs and local care providers, as well as the local voluntary sector, is likely to be put at risk.”
Each ICB in England will be made up of four executives, three independent non-executives and three partner members and three partner members.
The partner members will be formed by one from an NHS trust or foundation in BOB, one from general practice and one from a local authority.
Cllr Charles Margetts, executive member for health, wellbeing and adult services at the borough council, is worried that the local voice will be lost.
He said: “They wish to treat the area as three authorities rather than the five on the ground.
“This means the three Berkshire authorities will be considered as one NHS place and will have less influence.”
Cllr Margetts fears that Wokingham will be forgotten about when decisions for West Berkshire are made.
He said: “We have real concerns about the lack of representation for the local authority and local primary care with the ICB structures.
“We note one chief executive from the five authorities will sit on the board, however we cannot understand how a councillor from another area can have any knowledge on Wokingham issues.
“We fear this will lead to decisions being made with no accountability and minimal local voice which will lead to poor outcomes for our residents.”
As part of the NHS reform, all funding will be routed through the ICB and then distributed to the authorities within the BOB.
Cllr Margetts is keen to ensure transparency over the distribution of funds.
“We want to ensure Wokingham money is spent on Wokingham residents,” he said. “For example, Oxfordshire is £1 million overspent at the moment so we need to stop Wokingham residents paying for other people’s bad management.
“The ICS has just committed to spend £1 million of taxpayer money on a five-year strategy — there was no discussion on this at all — they simply went ahead.”
The council would like to see a closer integration between health and social care to improve overall health care and see this reform as moving away from the end goal.
Cllr Margetts added: “Social care is organised and run independently by the three Berkshire authorities based on the needs of their population.
“The NHS wishes to have one West Berkshire place to liaise with it and an example of why this does not work is the approach to the vaccination rollout.
“Creating one vaccination centre for their place at Broad Street Mall in Reading offered nothing to Wokingham and resulted in a second rate offer for our residents.”
