HEALTH chiefs have drawn up plans to merge eight clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) into one organisation.

Proposals would see CCGs, including in East Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen, merge to create a single CCG by April 2021.

A spokesman for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS),which is made up of organisations and groups involved in health and care in the area, said it would mean the CCGs would cease to exist.

But the spokesman said the creation of a single CCG would allow for commissioners to take a single, collective approach for setting standards and outcomes in health and care.

The ICS is currently made up of CCGS in Greater Preston, Chorley and South Ribble, East Lancashire, West Lancashire, Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre, Morecambe Bay and Blackburn with Darwen.

CCGs are NHS organisations set up to organise the delivery of services locally.

But health campaigner Russ McLean, chairman of the Pennine Lancashire Patient Voices' group, said that although the news was good for patients, he feared there may be job losses.

Mr McLean said: "This has been an idea mooted for quite a while.

"It's a cost-cutting exercise but a sensible one as I've always felt patients in Blackburn with Darwen and East Lancashire are sometimes treated differently.

"By this I mean that some services that are available in East Lancashire are not in Blackburn with Darwen.

"So I would welcome this news from a patient perspective but there is the obvious concern that job losses would come from this centralisation as you'd have a duplication of roles."

Cllr Azhar Ali, former health and wellbeing cabinet member at Lancashire County Council, expressed mixed views on the plans.

He said: "Some aspects of the plans are encouraging but I do worry we'd lose local knowledge to commission services at neighbourhood level."

Andrew Bennett, executive lead for commissioning in the ICS, added: “We’ve been working on a place-based approach to commissioning over the past two years, building on the best work undertaken by local organisations to integrate care in neighbourhoods and local areas.

"We have also acknowledged that at times, commissioning activity has been fragmented and a single CCG will allow us to take a collective approach to setting standards and outcomes.”

“NHS England have set out a clear process for CCGs to follow in these circumstances. This will involve sharing a formal case for change with our staff, our partners and our member practices.”