Strategic health authority

Strategic health authorities (SHA) were part of the structure of the National Health Service in England. Each SHA was responsible for enacting the directives and implementing fiscal policy as dictated by the Department of Health at a regional level. They replaced the former regional health authorities. Each SHA area contained various NHS trusts which took responsibility for running or commissioning local NHS services. The SHA was responsible for strategic supervision of these services.

In 2002, the existing regional health authorities were renamed and merged to form the 28 new strategic health authorities. On 12 April 2006, Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Health, announced that, following an NHS consultation, which ended on 22 March 2006, the SHAs were to be reorganized, reducing to ten in number. This was hoped to produce substantial financial savings.

The SHAs had the board and governance structures common to all NHS trusts.

Strategic health authorities and primary care trusts were abolished on 31 March 2013 as part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Facilities owned by SHAs will transfer to NHS Property Services.

SHAs after 1 July 2006

The ten SHAs established on 1 July 2006, and abolished on 31 March 2013, were:

1. NHS East of England (East of England region)
2. NHS East Midlands (East Midlands region)
3. NHS London (London)
4. NHS North East (North East region)
5. NHS North West (North West region)
6. NHS South Central
7. NHS South East Coast
8. NHS South West (South West region)
9. NHS West Midlands (West Midlands region)
10. NHS Yorkshire and the Humber (Yorkshire and the Humber region)

These Strategic Health Authorities are coterminous with government office regions, except that the large South East England region is divided into two: South Central and South East Coast.

Types of trust under the supervision of SHAs

• NHS hospital trust
• NHS ambulance services trust
• NHS care trust
• NHS mental health services trust
• NHS primary care trust (PCT)

Map of SHAs before 2006 reorganisation

1. Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire SHA
2. Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire SHA
3. Birmingham and The Black Country SHA (West Midlands minus Coventry)
4. Cheshire and Merseyside SHA
5. County Durham and Tees Valley SHA
6. Cumbria and Lancashire SHA
7. Dorset and Somerset SHA
8. Essex SHA
9. Greater Manchester SHA
10. Hampshire and Isle of Wight SHA
11. Kent and Medway SHA
12. Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland SHA
13. Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA
14. North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire SHA
15. North Central London SHA
16. North West London SHA
17. North East London SHA
18. Northumberland, Tyne and Wear SHA
19. Shropshire and Staffordshire SHA
20. South East London SHA
21. South West London SHA
22. South West Peninsula SHA
23. South Yorkshire SHA
24. Surrey and Sussex SHA (Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex)
25. Thames Valley SHA (Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire)
26. Trent SHA (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire)
27. West Midlands South SHA (Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Coventry) †
28. West Yorkshire SHA

† known as the 'Coventry, Warwickshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire SHA until 2004.

The London break-up was

• North Central London - Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey, Islington
• North East London - Barking and Dagenham, City, Hackney, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest
• North West London - Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Westminster
• South East London - Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark
• South West London - Croydon, Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Wandsworth, Sutton

These SHAs were replaced by a single London SHA in 2006.

External links

• NHS Confederation
• Capital challenge: improving healthcare in London Report from the NHS Confederation on the future of healthcare in London and the impact of the proposed NHS reforms