§ Mr. SedgemoreTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to establish the NHS Executive Regional Office for London; and if he will make a statement. [42671]
§ Mr. DobsonIn my statement on 3 February 1998,Official Report, column 843, I accepted the recommendations in Sir Leslie Turnberg's report on London's Health Services including the proposal that a single National Health Service Executive Regional Office for London should be a longer-term aim in order to ensure effective planning across London. I have now decided that it would be right to move more quickly on this front and I intend to establish such an Office from 1 April 1999. In the meantime, I expect the existing North and South Thames Regional Offices to continue to work closely with each other to ensure coherent strategic planning across London.
269WThe decision to establish a single Regional Office for London necessarily affects the boundaries of other existing NHS Executive Regional Offices in the South of England and I intend to reorganise their boundaries to match more closely the boundaries of the Government Offices for the Regions. The following arrangements will be established from 1 April 1999.
A London Regional Office which will be coterminous with the proposed Greater London Authority.A South East Regional Office which would cover Health Authorities in Kent, Surrey, Sussex (which are currently covered by South Thames Regional Office), Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (which are currently covered by the South and West Regional Office) Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire (which are currently covered by the Anglia and Oxford Regional Office).An Eastern Regional Office covering Health Authorities in Norfolk, Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire (which are currently covered by the Anglia and Oxford Regional Office) and Essex and Hertfordshire (which are currently covered by North Thames Regional Office).A South West Regional Office which will exclude Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.In addition I intend to restructure the Department's Social Care Regional Offices so that from 1 April 1999 they are coterminous with the boundaries of the NHS Executive Regional Offices as follows:
The Northern Social Care Region will match the North West and Northern and Yorkshire NHS Executive Regional Offices.The Central Social Care Region will match the West Midlands, Trent and Eastern NHS Executive Regional Offices.The Southern Social Care Region will match the South West and South East NHS Executive Regional Offices.The London Social Care Region will match the London NHS Executive Regional Office.A map showing the new NHS Executive Regional Office structure has been placed in the Library.
The Regional Chairmen for the new NHS Executive Regional Offices will be:
London: Ian MillsSouth East: Sir William WellsEastern: Rosie VarleySouth West: Janet Trotter.Their appointments will run until 31 October 1999, the date on which their original appointments were due to expire.