Strategic health authority

Strategic health authorities (SHA) were part of the structure of the National Health Service in England between 2002 and 2013. Each SHA was responsible for enacting the directives and implementing fiscal policy as dictated by the Department of Health at a regional level. Each SHA area contained various NHS trusts which took responsibility for running or commissioning local NHS services, and the SHA was responsible for strategic supervision of these services.

In 2002, the existing regional health authorities were renamed and merged to form 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 were transferred to NHS Property Services.

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

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.

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

The London break-up was

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

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