A second merger in just four years has led to the creation of single body planning primary care for 4.5 million people, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

England’s largest NHS integrated care board serving 4.5 million people across 13 London boroughs has officially been launched – in an effort to streamline services and reduce costs.

The new NHS West and North London Integrated Care Board (WNL ICB) was formally launched during its inaugural meeting today (Wednesday 1st), following decisions made last year by the former North Central London and North West London ICBs to merge.

The enlarged ICB will now be responsible for planning around £12billion of spending every year on NHS primary care services across Barnet, Brent, Camden, Ealing, Enfield, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster boroughs.

The new WNL ICB claims the merger will allow for an increased focus on “strategic” investment and commissioning decisions “to shape long-term redesign of services and help local people live healthier, longer lives”.

It further says the creation of the new ICB “follows months of detailed and complex work by colleagues across both organisations” including “large scale” consultations as well as voluntary redundancy schemes.

Speaking at the meeting, the new care board’s interim CEO Katie Fisher said it had been an “impossibly difficult year” for many ICB staff, both locally and nationally, adding: “We’re right at the sharp end of that now.”

Regarding the redundancies happening as a result of the merger, she said: “We have many, many colleagues who we are starting to say goodbye to through voluntary redundancy processes.

“We have a lot more staff who will be leaving at the end of April and then the remainder of those staff are absolutely going through processes of applying for jobs and understanding what their personal futures are.”

Fisher said it was key the redundancies would be done with “kindness” and “compassion” and that “whatever individual outcomes are for people that they can hold their heads up high with dignity, proud of the enormous contribution they’ve made to their communities and to the NHS over many, many decades and years of service.”

Until four years ago, each London borough had its own clinical commissioning group led by GPs, but these were replaced by ICBs covering large groups of boroughs in 2022, before the latest merger of local NHS bodies affecting north and west London was agreed last year.

In a further statement Mike Bell, chair of the new WNL ICB, said: “While today marks a significant milestone, it is not a point of completion. The new ICB is standing up in a context of national reform and significant cost reduction.

“We did not choose the scale or pace of change required, but we have taken responsibility for responding in a way that protects our ability to lead, partner and deliver.”

Bell added: “It’s a real challenge, but one we must rise to, and I believe we can.”

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