 | This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Clinical commissioning groups have been replaced with integrated care systems.(July 2022) |
Healthcare in Berkshire was the responsibility of five clinical commissioning groups until July 2022: Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead, Slough, Bracknell and Ascot and Wokingham.[ clarification needed ]
From 1947 to 1965 NHS services in Berkshire were managed by Oxford (the eastern side) and the North-West Metropolitan (the western side) Regional Hospital Board. In 1974 the boards were abolished and replaced by regional health authorities. Berkshire came under the Oxford RHA. Regions were reorganised in 1994 and Berkshire came under the Anglia and Oxford Regional Health Authority. Berkshire had two area health authorities from 1974 – Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, Oxfordshire. In 1982 it was divided into East and West Berkshire district health authorities. Regional health authorities were reorganised and renamed strategic health authorities in 2002. Berkshire was part of Thames Valley SHA. In 2006 regions were again reorganised and Berkshire came under NHS South Central until that was abolished in 2013. There were two primary care trusts for the area: Berkshire West and Berkshire East.
In March 2016 Sir Andrew Morris, Chief Executive of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, was appointed the leader of the Frimley Health Sustainability and transformation plan footprint, which covers the areas of Bracknell and Ascot CCG, North East Hampshire and Farnham CCG, Slough CCG, Surrey Heath CCG and Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead CCG. [1] Councillors in Reading complained about the move, saying "There are those of us who can remember 30 odd years ago driving over to Oxford to try to lobby on issues to do with health.” [2] Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West formed a separate footprint under the leadership of David Smith the Chief Executive of Oxfordshire CCG. [3]
In 2016, the CCGs commissioned a Connected Care programme to enable the 102 GP practices, Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, South Central Ambulance Service and the six local authorities across the county to share records - and enable patients to view their own records. Records of 855,000 patients are used by about 12,000 health and care professionals. The system uses CareCentric software from Graphnet. [4]
Newbury & District, North & West Reading, South Reading and Wokingham CCGs were combined into Berkshire West CCG. They was on the basis of the Berkshire West accountable care system. Bracknell & Ascot, Slough, Windsor, Ascot & Maidenhead CCGs merged into East Berkshire CCG in April 2018. They were part of the Frimley Health accountable care system. [5]
There are 102 GP practices in the county. Out-of-hours services are provided by Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, South Central Ambulance Service and East Berkshire Primary Care Out of Hours.
Acute services are provided by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust.
The county has two hospitals with accident and emergency facilities: Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading and Wexham Park Hospital on the northern edge of Slough. Some parts of the county are closer to acute hospitals in other counties, including Frimley Park Hospital and Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital. The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford is the nearest major trauma centre to most of the county.
The main NHS provider is Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
There are six local Healthwatches.
Berkshire is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berkshire in 1957 because of the presence of Windsor Castle, and letters patent were issued in 1974. Berkshire is a county of historic origin, a ceremonial county and a non-metropolitan county without a county council. The county town is Reading.
The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS foundation trust in England, which is responsible for the management of the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, Berkshire, as well as the Prince Charles Eye Unit and the Dialysis Unit, both in Windsor; Bracknell Healthspace, Townlands Hospital in Henley-on-Thames, and West Berkshire Community Hospital, which is between Newbury and Thatcham.
Wexham Park Hospital is a large NHS hospital in Slough, Berkshire. It has been managed by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust since 2014. Sir Andrew Morris is the chief executive of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Thames Valley Buses, known until 2021 as Courtney Buses is a bus company based in Bracknell, England. Founded in 1973, the company operates a network of commercial and contracted local bus services and school buses in Berkshire, north Hampshire and small parts of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The company is known for its use of alternative fuels, having been the first bus company in the United Kingdom to operate a bus run on 100% soya oil. In March 2019 it was purchased by Reading Buses. The company was gradually rebranded to its current name between October 2019 and April 2021.
The Thames Valley Health Innovation and Education Cluster (TVHIEC) is a publicly funded partnership authorised by the Department of Health to improve innovation and education within the NHS across the Thames Valley. It was established on 1 April 2010 and is based in Oxford. The Thames Valley Health Innovation and Education Cluster is one of seventeen HIECs established by the Department of Health in January 2010 to improve the quality of healthcare through increased innovation within health/social care and applied healthcare education across England. The themes of Thames Valley HIEC are:
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health services and other community based health services, primarily to the resident population of the Royal County of Berkshire, England, in the United Kingdom.
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS Foundation Trust created on 1 October 2014 by the acquisition of Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust by Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This was the first ever take over of one NHS Foundation Trust by another. It runs Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, Wexham Park Hospital near Slough, both in Berkshire, and Frimley Park Hospital near Camberley, Surrey.
Healthcare in Somerset, England was the responsibility of three clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) until July 2022. These covered the ceremonial county of Somerset, which comprises the areas governed by Somerset County Council and the unitary authorities of North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset.
Healthcare in Sussex was the responsibility of seven Clinical Commissioning Groups covering: Brighton and Hove; Coastal West Sussex; Horsham and Mid Sussex; Crawley; Eastbourne Hailsham and Seaford; Hastings and Rother; High Weald; and Lewes-Havens from 2013 to 2020. From April 2020 they were merged into three covering East Sussex, West Sussex, and Brighton and Hove.
Healthcare in Surrey was the responsibility of five Clinical Commissioning Groups: East Surrey, North West Surrey, Surrey Downs, Guildford and Waverley, and Surrey Heath from 2013 to 2020 when East Surrey, North West Surrey, Surrey Downs, Guildford and Waverley merged to form Surrey Heartlands CCG. The new organisation started with a £62 million deficit.
Healthcare in Cambridgeshire was the responsibility of NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group until July 2022. This was one of the largest in the United Kingdom.
Healthcare in Hampshire was the responsibility of six clinical commissioning groups until July 2022. These were based in Southampton, Portsmouth, North East Hampshire and Farnham, South Eastern Hampshire, West Hampshire, and North Hampshire. In 2018, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Partnership of Clinical Commissioning Groups was set up. Maggie MacIsaac was Chief Executive.
Sir Andrew Valentine Morris Hon FRCP is a former British hospital administrator who is currently a non-executive director of NHS Improvement.
Healthcare in Buckinghamshire was the responsibility of the Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, and Milton Keynes clinical commissioning groups until July 2022.
Healthcare in Oxfordshire was the responsibility of Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group until 2022 when it became part of the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West integrated care system.