NORTH Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which manages Basingstoke hospital, is set to form a four-way partnership with other groups across the region.

The CCG will team up with Fareham and Gosport CCG, North East Hampshire and Farnham CCG and South Eastern Hampshire CCG, who met last week for their inaugural Partnership Board meeting.

Dr David Chilvers, chairman of Fareham and Gosport CCG, on behalf of the four CCG clinical chairmen said: “Working together is allowing us to share expertise, to be more effective and to reduce duplication.

“As a result we are able to speed up the improvement of services for our patients.”

The four CCGs opted to work more closely together last month and will now share a single chief executive, Maggie MasIsaac, who is the accountable officer for all of the groups.

Maggie joined the NHS as a graduate nurse and has worked in many sectors throughout the NHS at a senior level – both locally and regionally.

Most recently she has been the chief officer of North East Hampshire and Farnham CCG, a role she has had since July 2012.

Maggie said: “Working together as a partnership is already helping us to make a difference to the delivery of care for our local communities, and simplifying how we work with Hampshire County Council (HCC).”

Together, the four CCGs commission health services for approximately 850,000 people with a budget of £1.1 billion.

The groups work closely with HCC, and are part of two Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) – the Hampshire and Isle of Wight STP and the Frimley Health and Care System STP.