The Great North Care Record is governed by the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) Management Group which is made up of Chief Executives of NHS hospitals, primary care and local authorities.

The Great North Care Record is governed by representatives from NHS Trusts, ICBs, primary care, local authorities, North of England Commissioning Support Unit (NECS), Academic Health Science Network-NENC, and NHS England/Improvement.

The programme’s Senior Responsible Owner is Helen Ray, Chief Executive of North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.

Now, more than ever, health and care services need to work together. By doing this, we can deliver the right care, at the right time, and in the best place.

Creating an ICS for the North East and North Cumbria is not about designing a new organisation. It’s looking at how to work differently for the benefit of all patients and staff.

Our ICS will bring together health and social care organisations to agree joint priorities. This can help us to decide how best to design services where there is a common need or opportunity. By working together and sharing technology, data, or staff, we can make the most of the resources we have.

But more importantly, this means we have a shared focus on improving the health and wellbeing of our population. Our ICS will make it easier to work ‘at scale’ on common issues which are bigger than one organisation. In addition to the ICS, four smaller integrated care partnerships (ICPs) made up of local hospital trusts, GPs, community-based, health and care services and the third sector will look at local priorities and challenges. These ICPs will be working together to reduce some of the costs associated with planning and delivering services, in addition to sharing what works best to improve the health of local people.

Great North Care Record is a key programme for the ICS. We will help to remove some of the duplication in the system by making healthcare data available, at the point of care.