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British Medical Association
bma.org.uk
Confidential /
Meeting held at Dillington House, Taunton TA19 9DT
Thursday 13th June 2013
South West Regional Council Executive Committee

Minutes

DraftMinutes of the South West Regional Council held on 13 June at Dillington House Ilminster

  1. Present
    Roger Bulley ( Deputy Chair )
    Helena McKeown ( Honorary Secretary)
    Philip de Warren Penny
    Bharat Pankhania

Alan Cockett
Dureid Rifai

Harry Yoxall

Robin Arnold

Wayne Sturley

Shelagh Mc Cormack

Sean Cusack (in attendance)
Apologies:
Kirstin May
Mark Sandford Wood
Peter Revington
John Hyslop

  1. Minutes of meeting 28 February held jointly with the SW RCC were agreed.
  1. ARM Motions

An emergency motion was agreed condemning the recent comments by MPs about the cost of training part time female GPs.

Motion 86 starred ref primary aim of NHS being the care of patients as it is covered by an A motion.

  1. BMA Local

It was noted that the issue just out featured GPC posters on the real story of the NHS for use in GP surgeries.

  1. Health Education England

It was noted that HEE was morphing in to local provider organisations for education. HE Wessex had recently sent out information. It was also noted that after several meetings the two proposed LETBs for the region had become a single LETB to be lead by the former Chair of Somerset Health Authority Jane Barrie. It would not be a surprise if this eventually became HEE South West.

The CEO of HEE Ian Cummings had recently addressed a national SAS conference and told them the budget was being squeezed and that everyone had to compete for money; but he was shocked to hear of the extent of cuts in East of England. He confirmed that next year’s budget would be based upon this year’s spend.

Currently Dr Mark Sandford-Wood represents primary care interests on the peninsula LETB and Phil Kirby CEO of Avon LMC sits on the Severn LETB.

  1. Clinical Commissioning Groups

Dr Yoxall reminded the meeting that Somerset was a pathfinder authority with a single unitary PCT evolving in to a single CCG for the county and they already had a county wide PBC arrangement. 90% of the health economy stays in county, 10 % goes out and 10% comes in. So far it was working well. The CCG was also consulting with unions on policies.

Devon was different with a lot of local groupings with differing ideas thrown together resulting in split views.

Wiltshire has 3 divisions presently and local experience is that they need more time than is available to resolve differences.

Cornwall had had problems with the implementation of NHS111 as well as with action plans for out of hours GP care and the Royal Cornwall Hospital’s gynaecology service. East Cornwall had arranged to have a seat on the West Devon CCG for joint commissioning.

It was agreed that we would write to all CCGs in the region seeking up to date information, newsletters and e-mail contact so we can be kept informed.

  1. Public Health

Many public health functions and personnel had transferred to local authorities in recent weeks and there was much uncertainty. Budgets were ring fenced for 2 years but there were fears as to what changes LAs might bring such as further reductions in the number of Director of Public Health posts which were held by doctors. The PH observatories were migrating to Public Health England, one to each region. PHE will retain emergency planning and while names had changed many functions remained the same.

  1. Clinical Senates

Dr Bulley had met with Stuart Walker cardiologist at Taunton who is now the SW Strategic Director for cardiovascular disease. He is looking to shape this in to a clinical senate. Other than that there is very little information about clinical senates. Dr Mc Cormack described her role as NHS England Devon & Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Deputy Director of [ AT?] as “a sound bite looking for a function”. She believed that almost anything might be put to a clinical senate under the heading of oversight of reorganisation and that the main customers would be CCGs.

It was expected that virtual senates would be established in the autumn for Bristol/North Somerset / South Glos; for Wilts/ BANES/Swindon and for the peninsula. It was expected that about 5 clinical directors of networks would have seats on the Council and that a broader and wider senate would meet once or twice a year. Clinical senates are advisory only, influence without authority. There was concern that they could become secondary care led. There was also concern that while the clinical directors would have time allocated for this that others would not and that engagement would drop. Nor was it clear how the clinical directors would be accountable to a wider constituency. There was a need for more GP involvement.

  1. SW Consortium

The activities of the IROs in the region were noted in relation to the so far successful campaign against the consortium. The consensus view on the optimisers papers the consortium had produced was to let sleeping dogs lie.

  1. GP Contract

It was noted that this had been imposed.

  1. Care Quality Commission

The CQC has embarked on an inspection tour of GP surgeries. It was concerned more with clear surfaces and getting rid of cuddly toys from waiting rooms than with addressing rising workloads and no extra resources and the skewing of care to specific areas rather than to individual patients. Many GPs are struggling and burnout is a tangible problem.

It was noted that 28% of the GP workforce is over 55 and many are seeking 24hr retirement and return on reduced hours.

  1. WAHT

It was noted that the management of Weston Trust was now being readied for tender and that 14 organisations had expressed interest.

  1. Revalidation

Dr McKeown reported on recent experiences with the revalidation process and in particular how deferrals were being reported to individuals via GMC text alerts which was an unsatisfactory and disconcerting method of passing on bad news before Responsible Officers have got nowhere with the GMC over this so GPC is taking this up with the GMC.

  1. DONM

This will be the ABM to be finalised for late September. Agreed we will try to seek an amendment to the constitution to allow more than one retired member to be elected.

This mailing has been sent on behalf of the South West Regional Council by Suzanne Gowers who

can be contacted by email at or telephone 020 8655-8812