Following a meeting of Oxfordshire PCT’s Board last week, the decision was taken to choose Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (OBMH)  to be the preferred partner to integrate with community health services in Oxfordshire. This is a vote of confidence in the proposal OBMH put forward, not least our innovative plans for improving care pathways for the benefits of patients. Our bid focused on using the skills we have acquired through moving much of our care from inpatient into care closer to home within mental health care to show how we could support a greater push to delivering care in the community, especially those for younger and older people.

This is, however, simply the next stage in the process. The PCT’s decision will now go to the Strategic Health Authority’s Board at the end of this month, and then needs to go through more formal processes of consultation with staff and stakeholders, including Monitor and the Competition & Cooperation Panel. Provided all of these decisions are also favourable, we would spend the rest of the year preparing for the integration which would happen formally in 2011.