New NHS body covering Bedfordshire holds first board meeting
A newly created NHS body covering Bedfordshire and surrounding areas held its first public board meeting on Wednesday (April 1), approving how services will be run as it formally came into force.
The NHS Central East Integrated Care Board (ICB) will be responsible for planning services and spending health budgets for around 3.5 million people.
Opening the meeting, ICB chair, Robin Porter, said: “The Integrated Care Boards (Establishment and Abolition) Order 2026 came into force today… and establishes NHS Central East ICB.”
During the meeting, the board approved arrangements to carry over clinical policies from the former ICBs.
Dr Fiona Head, executive clinical director of utilisation management, told the board: “ICBs need to make decisions about what interventions are funded and when, we need to prioritise higher value interventions.”
She said 24 policies have been retired and 40 new Central East policies had been ratified.
“There’s still over 60 policies to be aligned… work is ongoing where a legacy ICB policy has not been retired or superseded by a new Central East policy,” she added.
Eilish Midlane, ceo Royal Papworth NHS Foundation Trust, asked whether any material differences between the policies could lead to unequal access for patients.
“Because we wouldn’t want to create a postcode lottery type arrangement,” she said.
Dr Head said: “We are in effect saying that different populations will be subjected to different policies.
“Different ICBs previously made different decisions about how funding is allocated, it’s only right and just that we [align this] across the whole of Central East.
“So we’re doing the best we can for all our population and reducing inequalities as we go. And I think our public will stand behind us in having that broader conversation,” she said.
As of 00:01 on 1 April 2026, the Hertfordshire element of NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex (HWE) ICB, NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB, NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB were disestablished. All duties and functions transferred to NHS Central East ICB through the granting of an Establishment Order by NHS England.
The West Essex element of HWE transferred to the new NHS Essex ICB