NHS promises new rounds of belt-tightening won’t damage services in west London

By Ben Lynch, Local Democracy Reporter

A London healthcare organisation serving 2.1 million people has said there will be ‘no changes to services’ despite having to implement a significant cut in spending.

The North West London Integrated Care Board (NWL ICB), which plans health services for the area, said NHS England had required all ICBs across the country to make approximately a 30 per cent reduction in building and staff management costs.

The NWL ICB covers a large patch of eight boroughs; Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster.

At a Hammersmith and Fulham Health and Wellbeing Board meeting last week, Sue Roostan, the director for the borough at the ICB, said the organisation had undergone a year-long restructure due to the cut.

She said as a result, the local team has lost six posts. “So we are really having to shift and do things differently as well as stop doing some things,” she said.

The ICB says staff affected by the reorganisation within the Hammersmith and Fulham team have either moved into another role or are taking voluntary redundancy.

Commenting on the restructure, Ms Roostan said it had been a “long and quite exhausting process for everybody, because there’s been a lot of people that have either been made redundant or retired or moved on because of the process, so it’s been quite a difficult time for people within the NHS at the moment”.

An NHS NW London spokesman said: “NHS England required that all integrated care boards across the country make approximately a 30 per cent reduction in building and staff management costs, and NHS North West London has been undergoing an organisational design process over the last few months in order to do so.

“No changes to services are occurring as a result of this restructure and patients should continue using services as normal.

“The restructure of the Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Team was part of this process and individuals affected within the local team have either successfully secured another role within the ICB in another team, or are taking voluntary redundancy.”

NHS England has been approached for comment.

Pictured top: 15 Marylebone Road, HQ for NHS North West London (Picture: Google Street View)