Amanda Sullivan – Accountable Officer, will provide the presentation on behalf of Newark and Sherwood Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)
Minutes:
An update presentation was provided by the Newark & Sherwood Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Amanda Sullivan – Accountable Officer and Andrea Brown – Associate Director Commissioning attended the meeting.
Following the presentation a question and answer session ensued as follows:
A Member commented on a CCG Annual General Meeting (AGM) he had attended about a year ago which had indicated that the CCG had been asked to save a significant amount of money and asked whether that was still the case.
Amanda Sullivan confirmed that in 2017/18 the CCG had an 8% efficiency challenge. The CCG delivered a 6% saving across Nottinghamshire. This was regarded as the upper end of what was achievable without disrupting service delivery. This year the CCG had been asked to make a 5% saving which was the upper end of normal in the NHS. The Growth coming into the CCG would be invested into mental health. Investment into GP networks would also be undertaken.
A Member commented on one of the priorities from Ministers was prevention rather than treatment. In reality money had been spent on treatment and there was never any money available for prevention.
Amanda Sullivan confirmed that they had recognised that investing money in treatment and not in prevention was not a sustainable place to be and that there was not a significant amount of money for prevention. It was commented that alcohol had been selected as a preventative criteria and there was concerted focus on alcohol. The key priority was joint working and hospitals would do more on that.
A Member commented on the alcohol preventative partnership work that had been established in Ollerton and was keen for the Council to support that preventative agenda. Other Members reiterated that the Council had a role to play.
A Member asked how the CCG would inform the community about the services they provided.
Amanda Sullivan confirmed that work was required regarding informing the public about where services would be provided. It was confirmed that the Council’s publication ‘Voice’ had been used to advertise the CCG services and local advertisements, local meetings and social networks had also been used to advertise their work. It was reported that in the next few days there would be a face book campaign regarding the use of 111 rather than going to the Accident and Emergency department (A&E). This campaign was being produced nationally. It was confirmed that the CCG needed to do more work regarding this. The opportunity to work in partnership with the Council was considered imperative as there was greater power in joint working.
A Member commented on prevention and felt that there was a gap regarding dental care. There had been issues within the district regarding the closure of dental practices and concern was raised regarding children not being able to secure regular dental checks.
Amanda Sullivan commented that dental services were less visible and accessible. She commented on the Andrea Leadsom (MP) reform and confirmed that the CCG did not have power over dentists or pharmacists, which was part of primary care. How the services could be linked together was being explored.
A Member commented that nothing had been reported regarding drug abuse and whether that was a separate issue. There had been a reduced service for type 2 diabetic support. Clarification was also sought regarding the terminology used in the draft Health and Wellbeing Partnership Plan regarding unpaid carers.
Amanda Sullivan confirmed that the Substance Misuse Services was undertaken by the County and was closely linked to mental health. They were looking at how they could commission those to work together more. Diabetes support, a diabetes training programme had been commissioned. It was confirmed that this was also an area for joint working.
Work undertaken around carer’s was undertaken jointly with Nottinghamshire County Council and there was a pooled budget around carer’s. It was reported that this was linked in with community assets and peer support.
A Member commented that the health chart displayed in the presentation was a picture of Ollerton & Boughton and a lot of those health issues could be found with residents of Ollerton & Boughton, including a lower life expectancy etc. Joint work had been undertaken by the Council, CCG and Ollerton and Boughton Town Council and a feasibility study had been commissioned. It was commented on the value and need for that work to be moved forward. The concept was sharing costs, making money go further and understanding what the public needed from the health service.
Amanda Sullivan confirmed that she recognised the health challenges in that area and the CCG had a responsibility to work with the Council and Town Council on those.
A Member sought clarification regarding recruitment of the NHS workforce and commented that the district had suffered trying to recruit GP’s nationally. He felt that this area was getting worse and questioned why recruitment was not being addressed.
Andrea Brown confirmed that the supply of the workforce for Nottinghamshire was well placed through trainee doctor positions being successfully filled. Trainee doctors were being supported with incentives to retain them in the Mansfield and Ashfield practices. It was reported that a number of international graduates had secured sponsorships for training programmes. For the wider work force, work was being undertaken regarding how Nurses could be trained to qualify in practices and there were action plans in place for that. Support for GP’s through physician and nursing associates was also discussed to release the GP’s time and also for the local community to think about alternative ways to seek medical advice.
The Chairman thanked the CCG representatives for their informative presentation and for attending the meeting.
AGREED that the presentation be noted.