Cornwall NHS merger with Devon put on hold

A move by the Government to merge the NHS in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly with Devon has been put on hold.

The proposed merger of the NHS integrated care boards (ICBs) has been roundly criticised in Cornwall since it was suggested last year.

Cornwall Council’s Liberal Democrat leader Leigh Frost has previously called the plan ‘outrageous’, while Green Party councillor, and Newquay Mayor, Drew Creek said the merger was being ‘imposed’ on Cornish residents. North Cornwall’s Lib Dem MP Ben Maguire has now welcomed the Government’s decision to postpone the move and hopes the idea will now be scrapped.

Each ICB manages the NHS budget, plans local health services and arranges care for its specific regional population. NHS England was planning to reduce the total number of ICBs in the country from 42 to 26 in a bid to cut operating costs by 50 per cent.
NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly and NHS Devon have been working together through cluster arrangements and had been progressing plans towards a formal merger in April 2027.

The ICBs received an update from NHS England yesterday (Tuesday, October 6) that the proposed Cornwall and Devon merger – along with the majority of other ICB clusters in the country – will not proceed on April 1, 2027, as previously anticipated.

The decision reflects the Government’s wider commitment to align integrated care footprints with future strategic authority arrangements, which are yet to be established in many areas. Cornwall is set to become a single Foundation Strategic Authority, operating with devolved powers from central government and not as part of a combined ‘Devonwall’ authority with Devon as many previously feared.

Future ICB footprints are now expected to be agreed by the Secretary of State after further consultation during 2027, with any changes expected to be implemented from April 2028. NHS England indicated that the additional time will allow for further local discussions, in response to concerns raised through the consultation process.

During this period, NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly and NHS Devon will continue to operate as a cluster, while remaining separate statutory organisations with unchanged boundaries, responsibilities and financial allocations.

Mr Maguire has been a strong critic of the merger, co-signing a letter with Cornwall’s other five MPs to the health minister in June and pressing for Cornwall’s ICB to retain its singular control over services.

He was concerned that decisions about Cornish healthcare would be made in Plymouth or Exeter and that Cornwall’s funding could be used to plug the gap in Devon’s finances, as Devon’s ICB is currently in deficit.

He said: “I’m very glad to see that these merger plans for Cornwall’s and Devon’s ICB have been postponed and I hope they will now be scrapped for good. My constituents were rightly worried that a merged ICB would see decisions made in Plymouth and Exeter, taking power away from the patients and communities it is supposed to represent.

“Cornwall’s ICB has a poor record of treating North Cornwall, my constituency, with anything like the fairness we should expect. If it can’t get that right when it’s based here in Cornwall, I dread to think of the even worse effects a merged ICB would have.

“With Devon’s ICB in deficit, we could not risk Cornwall missing out on funding as a result. Cornwall’s ICB money should be ringfenced in any circumstances and I’ll now be pursuing a firm guarantee that Cornwall’s ICB won’t be subject to any further merger plans.”

Cornwall Council leader Leigh Frost told a meeting of the authority’s corporate finance scrutiny committee in July that Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly were strongly against a merger with Devon. “We have spoken with one voice against that and yet still the preferred proposals are that it goes ahead, which I think is quite frankly outrageous.

“We do not want to see a merger of those budgets – back office function, absolutely fine, but those budgets should be sovereign and our budget should be spent on Cornwall and Cornish residents.”

He added: “My worry is that our money will go to Devon. They’re in a deficit as an ICB and that means less money for our services. Absolutely, the ICB merger will have an impact on Cornwall; maybe not a direct impact on our [council] budget, but there will be an indirect impact.”