This week Heath Minister Edward Argar announced that the Government’s target date for rolling out Integrated Care Systems on a statutory basis would now be put back to July 2022. Before the announced delay, ICSs were due to be created in April 2022, with CCGs abolished at the same time.
Mr Argar noted the importance of the work of ICSs since 2018, which have brought together many different NHS organisations and local government partners to give patients a person-centred, integrated and an as-local-as-possible approach to healthcare.
The Health and Social Care Bill, if passed, will strengthen this integrated approach by establishing Integrated Care Boards and Integrated Care Partnerships. The work of ICSs has been deemed crucial to successfully fulfilling the NHS’ priorities for the next year, which you can read about here in another article for this week’s newsletter.
