Integrated care area leadership
NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly’s Integrated Care Board (ICB) has appointed 3 designate managing directors. 1 for each of the area’s integrated care areas (ICAs): west; central; and north and east.
The new designate managing directors are John Garman, Rob White and Andy Sant, who are all GPs working in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, where they will continue to spend around half their time working in their practice, and the other half working on behalf of the ICA and ICB teams.
The new ICB begins on 1 July, and decisions about health and care services will be taken at a local level by health and care practitioners and clinicians, which will be key to the direction of our new ICB, which starts on 1 July. The appointment of the 3 managing directors will be key to this success.
Managing directors as the commissioner
The statutory ICB board intends to empower some element of its commissioning to its 3 ICAs, and as delegated by the ICB chief executive officer, Kate Shields, and the new ICB director of inclusion and commissioning.
The 3 managing directors will report directly into the ICB director of inclusion and commissioning, which will support the delegation of local commissioning of agreed services over time being passed to the ICAs for some designated services.
Each managing director will be the accountable person in their community for place-based (ICA) outcomes, for those decisions agreed at an integrated care partnership (ICP), ICB and ICA level.
Managing directors as a colleague to their local ICA clinical director and ICA forum members
As a member of each ICA team and alongside key colleagues, such as our incumbent 3 ICA clinical directors, each managing director will work in partnership across organisations with local colleagues to help develop the best service delivery options, recognising that health inequalities are not consistent across our county, and we must focus on levelling-up our services.
Managing directors as ICA forum chairs
Each managing director will act as the independent chairman of its local ICA forum, and ensure the great ICA collaborative work and cultures already developed are enhanced and built upon. This will cover all of their ICA primary care practitioners and will include any new services to the ICB such as pharmacy, ophthalmology and dentistry services in the future.
Kate Shields, our designate ICB chief executive officer, said John, Rob and Andy’s passion to improve people’s lives and extensive experience made them obvious choices for the roles.
“We want Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly to be a great place to be born, a great place to live and thrive, and a great place to grow old. We can only achieve this by bringing everyone involved in health, care and the voluntary sector together and work in partnership to solve our problems.
“This is an exciting – but challenging – time for our health and care system and our 3 managing directors will play a pivotal role in the success of our ICAs by developing, at pace, the services that are crucial to our population. Rob, John and Andy are 3 highly experienced GPs who have a deep understanding of the communities they serve and a passion for improving people’s lives. I know they will be excellent ambassadors and drive the change we need.”
People, place and community – not organisations – are at the heart of our plans and our 3 ICAs will adopt an approach that ‘health and care is best delivered closer to home’.
“I know Rob, John and Andy will always put people’s needs above the interests of any organisation when they consider what their communities and colleagues needs are, and we all look forward to working with them as a team.”
Dr John Garman, is a partner at Helston Medical Centre and will represent the west ICA, said he is looking forward to starting his new role.
We are incredibly fortunate to have a well-established and supportive community in the west which my colleagues, including ICB non-executive member Dr Neil Walden, have created by taking the time to listen and talk to people about what’s important to them, and developing health and care services in partnership. I am stepping into very big boots, but I am driven by the same belief that we can only make things better by working together; I cannot wait to meet people, understand what our priorities are and begin to make a difference to people’s lives.”
Dr Rob White, who is the system’s urgent and emergency care clinical lead and works at St Agnes Surgery, will oversee mid-Cornwall ICA.
“Every day I talk to patients who would benefit from the people involved in their care working together and asking them to get involved with decisions about their life.
“Too often people’s health and wellbeing becomes medicalised and we need to ask them what’s important to them and treat them as a whole person, rather than focusing on individual medical issues. It could be something as simple as finding someone to take care of their dog while they’re in hospital, which sounds simple but could have a big impact on their decision to not get the treatment they need. We need people around them who know the patient best, understand what they need, and provide that support and care closer to their home. I am determined to continue embedding this within mid-Cornwall to give people the care and support they need.”
Dr Andy Sant, who works for Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust at Liskeard Hospital will manage north and east Cornwall ICA.
“We live and work in a unique and beautiful county, but there are challenges working to provide services for people who need support across geographical boundaries. The integrated care areas aim to use the resources of our communities to deliver the best possible care for our population – our patients, friends and family- as local to their homes as possible.”