AS the planned reform of administration of health services in south Essex gathers momentum, it has been announced that the appointment has been made of the chief executive for the new Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board.

It will be a new layer of administration over the region, replacing the Clinical Commissioning Groups, though its staff will be integrated into the new organisation.

The board will be led by Chief Executive Officer designate, Anthony McKeever, who steps up from his current role as Executive Lead for the Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership and Joint Accountable Officer for Mid and South Essex CCGs on a new salary believed to be around quarter of a million a year, a step up from his current pay packet of around £175,000.

The chair of the new board will be Professor Mike Thorne who says: "Mac has been appointed to the role after a robust recruitment and assessment process led by NHS England and NHS Improvement.

"The process included stakeholder panels featuring members from partner organisations, staff, and local community representatives.

"The health bill currently going through Parliament passed its second reading in the House of Commons, and our chief executive officer appointment has taken place now in order for us to prepare for the proposed changes ahead. The integrated care board will be the statutory NHS body within our health and care system.

"I'm sure you will agree Mac's experience and knowledge has supported us to confront the unique challenges of the pandemic and strengthen our collaboration with colleagues across mid and south Essex over the past 18 months. I believe that his commitment to improving things for the benefit of the population we serve shines through in everything he does.

"I'm sure you will join me in congratulating Mac, and I look forward to continuing working with him and colleagues across our system as we move closer to formalising the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System in April 2022."

The health bill, if it passes into legislation, will create 42 'integrated care boards across the country and will see the abolition of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), which themselves were only established as part as the last government rethink which was the Health and Social Care Act in 2012.

That restructuring was perceived as the answer to health management problems and saw the abolition of primary care trusts.

The idea was that doctors from groups of general practices would come together in each area to commission the best services for their patients and population. The judgement appears to be that the scheme hasn't worked, so there is yet another reorganisation.

Critics have highlighted the hundreds of millions reach restructuring costs at a time when direct health care is in crisis.

In February then Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the planned restructure will mean a focus "on the health of the population, not just the health of patients."

That prompted criticism from Labour who questioned the timing of the changes, saying it was happening "in the middle of the biggest public health crisis our NHS has ever faced", adding staff were exhausted.

Mr Hancock, who has since been sacked as health minister, said there was "no better time than now."

The welter of administrative changes and the complex structure of health care management in the region has long been a talking point. Last year Thurrock Nub News highlighted the contrast between the roles of highly paid administrators and staff on the front line who were demonstrating after their request for better pay and recognition had fallen on deaf ears from the government.

In a news report and comment last December, Nub News editor Neil Speight said: "I thought I had a reasonable grasp of local government and public service bureaucracy but what is happening in our region is becoming increasingly complex and cross-threaded to the extent I have lost the plot.

"I have asked for explanations but all I get is more bureaucratic gobbledegook and when I ask a simple question like 'How much is all this costing' I get no answers."