NHS Sussex Chair Spells Out Financial Concerns

An NHS boss has said that he was uncertain how much could be contributed to a shared delivery plan to improve services because his budget has been halved.

Stephen Lightfoot, who chairs NHS Sussex, the integrated care board, told Brighton and Hove City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board that he did not know how much could be put into the five-year care strategy known as Improving Lives Together.

Mr Lightfoot made his remarks when the Health and Wellbeing Board met at Hove Town Hall yesterday (Tuesday 8 April).

Over the next year. the shared delivery plan is expected to improve care for the over-65s, focus on children and young people’s mental health and establish a new women’s health hub.

Mr Lightfoot reminded members that that government had announced that it was abolishing NHS England – and integrated care boards were expected to reduce their running and programme costs by 50 per cent.

He said:

“We have to submit a plan to the remaining transition team of NHS England by May of this year and we have to remove the cost by the end of this calendar year.”

He also said that he supported the priorities and the idea of a contribution from NHS Sussex but he added:

“We’ve had no real further direction from the government in terms of how we need to rearrange our roles and responsibilities.

“So that probably means that we won’t receive details of our roles and responsibilities until the end of April.”

It would allow one month to “redesign” the integrated care board and three to six months to implement the changes.

Integrated care systems were set up in 2022, bringing together NHS providers – including hospital, community and mental health chiefs – with social care bosses and NHS commissioners to plan services to meet local needs.