The east-coast health group organising services for patients in Great Yarmouth and Waveney has been given the formal go ahead.

NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group (NHS GYW CCG), also known as HealthEast, has been granted official authorisation and is one of first in the country to be given the green light. GPs and health bosses were told they had passed all of the necessary stages to take over the planning and management of healthcare for patients.

The NHS Commissioning Board (NCB) informed senior managers at HealthEast the rigorous authorisation process had been successfully achieved and has authorised the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in full and without any conditions.

CCGs are groups of GP practices who will take over responsibility for planning and managing health care for local communities from April 2013.

Andy Evans, Chief Executive Officer at HealthEast, said: “The people of Great Yarmouth and Waveney can be pleased that their CCG is so well advanced because we will be taking over a very important responsibility from April. We have been carrying out this work in practical ways for quite some time now, so we are confident that our area won’t see any blips during the changeover.”

There were four stages HealthEast had to pass: evidence against 119 criteria; a report from the Strategic Health Authority and Primary Care Trust (PCT) on their readiness; a 360-degree view from 70 stakeholders and a day-long review by a team from the NCB.

The assessment report states: “The panel was impressed by this clinical commissioning group (CCG).

“There is strong clinical and managerial leadership with good evidence of a cohesive team. There were no significant concerns identified in any areas.”

The organisation’s key role will be to plan and pay for healthcare for the 230,000 people who live in the Great Yarmouth and Waveney area. This includes services covering mental health, the community and those provided by the James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The way CCGs operate is new in that GPs and other health clinicians are part of the team who will be making the decisions for patients. GP services, dentists, pharmacies and opticians – labelled in the NHS as ‘primary care’ services – will not be arranged by HealthEast but by the NCB.

Dr John Stammers, a practising GP and Chairman of HealthEast, said: ” We had high praise from the authorisation panel and feel very proud of how far we’ve come already.  It was great that they recognised the strength of clinical input in the team which will help design and monitor the services for our patients.

“They were also impressed by the level of patient engagement which puts us in good stead for the future. This was a really great result after six months hard work and reflects incredibly well on the team we have built.”