Devon GP takes over as head of county's new NHS group

Devon CCG will act as the headquarters for the NHS in the county

A local doctor takes over as the head of a new NHS organisation for Devon today - which marks its first day of operation.

Dr Paul Johnson (pictured), who lives in Exeter and is a GP at Cricketfield Surgery in Newton Abbot, takes up the post of Clinical Chair of the NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group

It will serve 1.2million across the whole county and is formed from the merger of South Devon and Torbay CCG and Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG, which have both now been formally dissolved.

Devon CCG will act as the headquarters for the NHS in the county and has a budget of more than £1.8 billion.

Dr Johnson said: “Creating one CCG for the county gives us a wonderful opportunity to take NHS care in Devon into an exciting future and we will now have a powerful single voice in the commissioning of health services.

 “We will bring the strength that comes from being the fifth biggest CCG in England, but our teams based across Devon are focussed on shaping local services to meet the varying needs of people in our many diverse communities.

“We’re looking forward to working with our NHS and local authority partners, patient groups and local people to design and develop services that improve the lives of people across our beautiful county.”