In 1974, the boards were abolished and replaced by regional health authorities; the whole of Somerset came under the South West RHA.
Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire formed a separate sustainability and transformation plan area with Robert Woolley, Chief Executive of University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, as its leader,[1] replaced by Stephen Ladyman in 2018.
[5] This has created England's first provider of primary, acute, community and mental health care services as Yeovil FT owns Symphony Healthcare — a subsidiary company which runs 12 GP practices.
Somerset CCG said too many people were misusing the town centre facility with relatively minor ailments that could be solved by a pharmacist or by ringing 111.
[16] Minehead Medical Centre, which has a patient population of 13,000 and around 50 staff, decided not to join the 15 other practices in Somerset which have opted to join Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust but adopted a “John Lewis” model, where every employee owns a non-tradeable share in the company at no extra cost to them.
Somerset CCG were planning a significant reduction in community hospital beds provided by the partnership trust.
In 2014 there were 312 beds but the CCG considered only 210 were needed, and they were also planning to procure an integrated service for patients with long term conditions.
Previously this service had been operated primarily by the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.
[24] Virgin Care won a seven-year contract to act as prime provider of community services in Bath and North East Somerset for an annual cost of £69.2 million in December 2016.
It was intended that the services would be more "joined up" and focussed on preventative care, through setting up hubs aligned with GP practices.
[26] In 2019, Sirona Care & Health won a 10-year adult community services contract to start in April 2020.