First Integrated Health and Care provider is launched in Dudley

Written on 01 April 2020.

The first NHS integrated health and care provider in the country has been launched in Dudley.

Dudley Integrated Health and Care NHS (DIHC) was authorised on April 1^st 2020. It brings together a range of health and care services in one organisation with primary care, delivered by General Practice, at its heart.

The ICP has been created from a partnership of local GPs, NHS Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group, The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, and Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

The new organisation will have an immediate focus on leading the co-ordination of primary and secondary care services in response to the COVID-19 virus. As an organisation we are ideally placed to support our local partners within the NHS and wider system by responding to the unprecedented challenge that we find ourselves faced with.

The first services to be provided by the new organisation will be Primary Care Mental Health and Mental Health Talking Therapies. Other services will join once the contract is awarded on the 1^st October 2020 by Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group.

Appointment of Executive Directors

Written on 24 March 2020.

The ICP’s first four Executive Directors have been appointed.

They are all being seconded from their existing organisations and joining the ICP on an interim basis.

The four appointments are:

Director of Finance – Matthew Gamage, currently Head of Financial Management, Dudley CCG
Director of Nursing and Allied Health Professionals – Caroline Brunt, currently Chief Nurse, Dudley CCG
Director of Operations, Strategy and Partnerships – Stephanie Cartwright, currently Interim Managing Director of the M/ICP Development
Director of People – Bev Edgar, currently HR lead for the ICP project

Stephanie Cartwright will also retain her role as ICP Project Director.

The appointment of these four Executive Directors is a significant milestone that will help ensure the new ICP is legally constituted and has an effective board when it comes into operation on April 1^st.

Interviews for the Medical Director will be held at the end of March.

Applications for Non-Executive Director posts in the ICP close on March 12^th and interviews will be held at the end of March.

Harry Turner chairman of the ICP said: “This is an exciting time to be working in the NHS in Dudley. We will be the first Integrated Care Provider in the country and I am looking forward to working with the new Executive Director team.”

Appointment of Chair

Written on 03 March 2020.

Harry Turner has been appointed independent chair of The Dudley Multi-specialty community provider.

Harry is an experienced chair having been chair at The Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust for the past couple of years and prior to that Chair of Worcestershire Acute NHS Trust.

He has a wealth of NHS and private sector experience at trust board level including acute, specialist and mental health chair positions and board level in the travel industry and that range of experience will be pivotal to this position as we form a completely new way of delivering care for Dudley people.

Harry’s appointment is for twelve months initially as we work through what form the MCP will take and establish how health and care services will be delivered within it.

Harry said, “I am thrilled at becoming the MCP chair. It is a great opportunity and an honour to make a difference in an area that you have been bought up in. I am really looking forward to working with all of the partners across primary, acute, mental health, care and voluntary sectors, to develop a whole new way of working that will provide long term health and care benefits for the people of Dudley.”

Diane Wake, chair of the MCP transition board said, “We are delighted Harry is joining the team on this journey to become an MCP. The time is right to have an independent chair to support the establishment of the MCP. His energy and enthusiasm for developing Dudley into a truly integrated health and care system is amazing and I am excited at the prospect of what we can achieve.”

Dudley MCP will bring together GP practices, nurses, community health and mental health services, community-based services such as physiotherapy, relevant hospital specialists and others to provide care in the community that is joined up and puts patients at the centre, where they should be.