Clinical commissioning in Surrey Heath

Last week I attended the first Annual Meeting of the Surrey Heath Clinical Commissioning Group [SHCCG]. This post isn’t a discussion of the politics around changes in the NHS. We are where we are on NHS reform. It’s just my brief report on the meeting.

The chart opposite is part of the handout given to attendees at the meeting [click to enlarge] 

The Surrey Heath Clinical Commissioning Group is one of a number within the South Coast NHS, who will be taking over the work of the Surrey Primary Care Trust. Here’s how the NHS’s national director of Primary Care describes clinical commissioning:

“By engaging in the commissioning process through practice-based-commissioning, GPs have the opportunity to shape the types of care available for patients, determine how resources are invested to best effect and buy the services their patients need. We have a unique and deep knowledge of our registered patients needs and what happens to them when they are referred on. We know that with more influence over the whole clinical process how much better we can make the NHS and in the process release resources to be used in community settings.”

Here are my notes on what was said at the meeting,

• Surrey Heath has better health outcomes than Surrey as a whole
• Around 50 patient pathways have been defined
• While Clinical Commissioning Groups are not statutory until April 2013, from April 2012 the SHCCG will operate as a committee of the Surrey Primary Care Trust. So, it’ll be operating as though it were an independent commissioning group.
• The SHCCG is based in the Council offices of Surrey Heath Borough Council.
• The main health issue facing Surrey Heath is one of an aging population, where dementia is a key factor.
• The view of the doctors of the SHCCG was that there will be an improved relationship between hospital consultant and GP

If you want to know more about health services in Surrey Heath, the public are invited to a meeting on April 24th at St Paul’s Church, Camberley, from 2.0pm till 3.30pm, where GP’s will discuss on what they are planning, and how they will involve people in improving local health services.

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