Issue - meetings

The Board considered the content of the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme.  During consideration of this item a number of issues were considered.

a)        Worcestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC)

Councillor B. T. Cooper, the Council’s representative on Worcestershire HOSC, explained that the latest meeting of the Committee had taken place on 15th July.  During this meeting 2 key items were considered:

i)                Primary Care Commissioning and GP Access

In 2015 there was due to be a change to the commissioning responsibilities for primary care services and for basic general practice, with some services being devolved from NHS England to local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). 

Patient satisfaction surveys had been undertaken in recent months which appeared to indicate that the CCGs in Worcestershire were performing slightly better than general for CCGs at a national level.  In total 87 per cent of patients in practices that formed part of the Redditch and Bromsgrove CCG had reported that they had been able to get an appointment to see a medical practitioner when needed compared to 85 per cent of patients nationally.

Issues had been reported during the Committee meeting concerning the experiences of patients living on the borders of Worcestershire.  This included:

·               Patients with a GP in Alvechurch had discovered that their practices were part of a satellite group of practices for the South Birmingham CCG.  These patients were finding that access to services within Worcestershire were partly restricted as a consequence.

·               Anecdotal reports had been received that elderly residents from Alvechurch had been sent to hospitals outside Worcestershire rather than the Princess of Wales Community Hospital due to the funding implications of being a patient served by a GP Practice that was not part of a Worcestershire CCG.

·               Councillor J. M. L. A. Griffiths reported that as a patient in a GP Practice that did not form part of a Worcestershire GP Practice she had been informed she was not eligible for a free flu vaccination in Worcestershire.

·               Delays had occurred in terms of discharging patients from the Alexandra Hospital who lived in Hagley and who were patients with a GP Practice that was not part of a Worcestershire CCG.

·               Patients discharged from hospital had found that they had limited access to post-operative care in cases where their GP practice was not part of a Worcestershire CCG.

This problem had been raised during a recent CALC meeting and the Chair of the Redditch and Bromsgrove CCG had been invited to attend a future meeting in order to discuss potential solutions.  Members were also advised that Councillor J. M. L. A. Griffiths was due to attend a meeting alongside Parish Council members and representatives of Worcestershire Healthwatch, to discuss this matter further. 

Members were advised that the CCGs had been made aware of these issues though had not yet identified a solution to the problem.  In part it was suggested that this problem, in terms of a “postcode lottery” for residents living in border areas, was not a new phenomenon  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26