From 1 October 2009, the NHS in Wales will have seven integrated health boards, covering all services in their areas. The move means that Wales has abandoned the internal market system used in England, where primary care trusts buy services for their patients from organisations such as acute trusts.
According to Kable data, the 12 largest trusts which have been merged into health boards spent an estimated £59m on ICT in 2008-09.
The seven new health boards are Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University (Swansea and environs), Aneurin Bevan (Gwent), Betsi Cadwaladr University (north), Cardiff and Vale University, Cwm Taf (the Valleys), Hywel Dda (south-west), and Powys Teaching.
In one case, the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has absorbed all the six health boards and two trusts across north Wales and Anglesey. In another, Cardiff and the Vale NHS Trust, which was previously the biggest Welsh NHS trust in terms of ICT budget, has merged with Cardiff Local Health Board and the Vale of Glamorgan Local Health Board.
Announcing the move last year, health minister Edwina Hart said: "The local bodies will be organised in ways which make cooperation between them easier to achieve and which helps eliminate the last outcrops of the competitive market ethos inherited from Conservative Party policies."
Three national NHS trusts remain: Welsh Ambulance Services, Velindre (which provides specialist services) and Public Health Wales.
