Health budget control welcomed

Reporter: Lucy Kenderdine
Date published: 03 March 2015


OLDHAM health chiefs have welcomed the move to put Greater Manchester councillors and doctors in charge of the area’s health budget from April.

The devolution agreement will see the region’s 10 councils and health groups take over a £6bn fund allocated for health and social care, with full powers devolved from April 2016.

Greater Manchester will take responsibility for adult, primary and social care as well as mental health and community services and public health.

Denis Gizzi, managing director of Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: “Greater Manchester has been offered a great opportunity to improve integrated care. This is a direction Oldham CCG and our partners at Oldham Council have been working towards for quite some time. For us in Oldham, it is about seizing the opportunity for greater devolved leadership and going faster and further to improve public services for local people.”

The agreement is part of the government’s plan to close the economic gap between north and south by investing in regions.