Annex A > Chapter 5 - Regional, District and Trust Management > Statutory framework > Establishment of regional and district health authorities
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Establishment of regional and district health authorities
7 The 1977 Act required the Secretary of State to establish health authorities for the regions. [4]
8 Fourteen RHAs were set up under the 1973 Act. [5] In 1993 the decision was taken to abolish all 14 RHAs and to replace them with 8 regional offices of the NHS Executive, performing fewer functions than the authorities they replaced. It was recognised in 1993 that, given the many responsibilities of RHAs, it would take some time to bring this change into effect. Thus, in 1994, as a step towards eventual abolition, the number of RHAs was reduced to 8, and the regional offices of the NHS Executive were set up to run in parallel. The change was fully implemented in April 1996 when the RHAs ceased to exist. [6]
9 The 1980 Act [7] gave the Secretary of State power to establish district health authorities (DHAs) in place of AHAs. On 1 April 1982 AHAs ceased to exist and 192 new DHAs took their place. [8] DHAs became the main operational authorities.
10 By the Health Authorities Act 1995, RHAs and DHAs were abolished with effect from 1 April 1996, and the Secretary of State was under a duty to establish `health authorities'. These new health authorities were created from the merger of the old DHAs and family health service authorities (FHSAs).
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Footnotes
[4] Section 8, 1977 Act
[5] Regional health authorities established by the NHS (Determination of Regions) Order 1981, SI 1981/1836: Northern, Yorkshire, Trent, East Anglia, North East Thames, South East Thames, North West Thames, South West Thames, Wessex, Oxford, South Western, West Midlands, Mersey, and North Western
[6] The eight regional offices are: Eastern, London, North West, Northern & Yorkshire, South East, South & West, Trent and West Midlands
[7] Section 1, 1980 Act
[8] DHAs established by the NHS (Determination) Order 1981, SI 1981/1837, Reg. 3