DORSET’S healthcare system is set for a major shake-up from July as part of new national arrangements.

The county’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is responsible for actioning hospital and community NHS services, will be replaced by an Integrated Care Board - called NHS Dorset.

The new board will absorb the responsibilities of the current CCG.

Dorset has been working as an Integrated Care System (ICS), which will now include the new board, since 2018 because it was one of the original pilots for the scheme aimed at providing people with the correct medical support by joining up the local councils, including both Dorset Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, the NHS and other partners.

This scheme is now set to be rolled out nationally following the publication of a government white paper for health and social care reform.

A spokeswoman for the ICS in the county said: “In Dorset, we've been working as an Integrated Care System (ICS) since 2018.

“On July 1 new national arrangements will come into place including NHS Dorset, the public name for Dorset’s Integrated Care Board, (which will replace Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group) and an Integrated Care Partnership of all organisations working to support the health and care of Dorset people.

“Integrated care is about removing traditional divisions between services so people and communities get the support and care that they need.”

Arrangements for the new board are set out in guidelines and includes that each ICB sets out its governance and leadership arrangements in a constitution formally approved by NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Campaign groups including We Own It and Keep our NHS Public have raised concerns that the new boards could ‘allow private companies an even bigger role’ in the health care system.

The chair of the Dorset ICS, Jenni Douglas-Todd, has ‘so far not publicly committed to ensure the Dorset NHS works for people instead of private profits,’ according to We Own It.

The campaign group says this can be done by banning private companies from the local board, prohibiting private companies from making decisions in the Dorset NHS and ending outsourcing of NHS services in Dorset.

Neither the spokeswoman for the Dorset ICS, the Department for Health and Social Care or NHS England could confirm if private companies would be banned from the county's board or banned from making decisions.