MINUTES OF THE 39th MEETING OF THE COALFIELD FORUM
MAY 20th HETTON MEDICAL CENTRE.
APOLOGIES: Colin Calder, Dorothy Simpson, Margaret and Brian Doyle.
PRESENT: Brian Nelson (chair), Karen Copeland, (Houghton Medical Centre).
Malcolm Eves (secretary), Geoff Armstrong, Kathleen Turnbull, (Westbourne Medical Centre).
Harry Brown, Margaret Dunn, Anne Farrow, (Herrington Medical Centre).
Gladys McKillup, Janice Collier, Jim Grieves, (Hetton Medical Centre).
Audrey Polkinghorn, (Silksworth PPG).
Penny Davison, (Locality Commissioning Manager SCCG).
Julie Whitehouse, (Patient Experience Officer SCCG).
Gloria Middleton, (Executive Manager Lead SCCG).
Dr Jackie Gillespie, (Locality GP SCCG).
MINUTES OF LAST MEETING: Accepted as a true record.
MATTERS ARISING: There were none.
CCG UPDATES: Jackie noted that procurement procedures for Houghton MIU were underway. The five Localities within Sunderland would use the ‘plan on a page,’ and translate changes to each area. An Innovation Fund had been used to purchase defibrillators, print directory of services leaflets and launch a ‘choosing right’ campaign. £100,000 of new funding in each Locality would be used to improve outcomes in six key areas. Localities could band together to pool resources.
The Board is looking at a prospectus entitled, ‘Better Health for Sunderland’ and this would clarify the purpose and functions of the CCG. Gloria noted that an easy-to-use CCG website would be in place for the end of June. A press release in the Sunderland Echo would follow.
COALFIELD COMMISSIONING: Penny Davison was making her first visit as Commissioning Manager for our locality. She introduced Forum members to the New Guide to the Healthcare System in England. She explained how our CCG fitted into the framework and how it was responsible to several bodies. Sunderland’s CCG had a workforce of 58. Core tasks had been retained in house. Public Health Teams e.g. smoking cessation were now under a City of Sunderland umbrella and headed by Noni Crawford. Glen Wilson was the COS link to our area.
The CCG budget is generated by £25 per patient. There would be some recharging when services were accessed by patients from outside our CCG area. Special funding was available was available when e.g. a Sunderland patient had to visit a special unit in York. There would be numerous opportunities for patient participation e.g. via Healthwatch and PPGs.
Brian asked if Healthwatch would be as thorough as LINk? Progress in setting up Healthwatch seemed slow. The notion of LINk translating smoothly into Healthwatch seemed to have been lost.
Penny introduced a document entitled, ‘Coalfields Locality-who are we and what do we do?’ Penny’s role was to implement the CCG plan in our area and she was working with practice leads to produce an action plan by the end of June. She would bring this back to the Forum for critical appraisal. Locality team members were identified. Lead practice managers meet monthly. Forum members would be identified in the document, if agreeable to all. Penny noted she wanted to bring patient views to the fore. There had been a major shift in climate from the PCT to our CCG. We now had a smaller team of much more accessible individuals which would actively seek the engagement and influence of patients.
Gloria said there were a number of ‘must dos’ from the Government but there would be a development of local strategies and Penny felt we could influence these. Penny would attend our next meeting to explain how the planning framework would lead to the list of Transformational Changes 2013/14.
JULIE WHITEHOUSE: Other Localities; The West area had had its third meeting. East would be meeting the following day. Public Health and COS reps would be explaining their roles. Julie said it was intended for each practice to have a poster outlining the CCG. She was compiling a glossary of terms to share with patient groups. Included also would be a list of Local Engagement Board meeting dates and those for the CCG Board for the year. A leaflet on DVT was distributed with Julie hoping for feedback by the end of May.
AOB: A public meeting of the CCG Board was to be held at the Hetton Centre the following day at 1.30 pm. Brian thanked members for attending and CCG reps for their valuable inputs.
NEXT MEETING: Monday 24th June 6pm at Hetton Medical Centre. Minutes by ANO as Malcolm will have fled to France!