LOCAL GPs will be responsible for designing health services in the Okehampton area following the launch of the NHS Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group on April 1.

The group will be responsible for commissioning £1.1billion of healthcare services on behalf of people across the county.

Rebecca Harriot, chief officer at Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG said: 'The hard work starts now, realising our vision of healthy people, living healthy lives, in healthy communities.'

The area served by the CCG includes the catchment areas of the three large acute hospitals — Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in Exeter. The CCG has taken on these responsibilities from the former primary care trust of NHS Devon, Plymouth and Torbay.

Ms Harriott said: 'Our mission is to make sure everyone has access to high-quality sustainable services that promote wellbeing and care when people are unwell.

'We know that demand on the NHS is increasing as people live longer and have more complex needs so we must look at ways to ensure we meet this.

'We are the largest CGG in the country and we intend to use our size for the maximum benefit of local people.

'We also want to design services that can, wherever possible, be delivered when, where and how people choose.'

Dr Tim Burke, chair of Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG, welcomed the launch of the CCG.

'We are very much looking forward to working with our public, our local government partners our NHS providers and our voluntary and independent sectors to commission the best possible services we can,' said Dr Burke.

'We have already spoken to and involved people and organisations in the development of our CCG and will hold a number of public events in the near future to introduce the CCG, our priorities and vision.

'We also want to give people a chance to have their say about their health priorities.

'Our vision is 'healthy people, living healthy lives, in healthy communities' and we will only achieve this if we put the patient at the heart of everything we do, working with people to deliver the right NHS services locally.'

The commissioning of healthcare services in South Devon and Torbay will be the responsibility of South Devon and Torbay CCG.

For more information on the CCG and what it means to you, visit http://www.newdevonccg.nhs.uk">www.newdevonccg.nhs.uk