Agenda item

10:15

Professor George Smith, Chairman of Healthwatch Oxfordshire (HWO) and Rosalind Pearce, Executive Director, will update the Committee on the activities of HWO since the last meeting (HWO5).

The Committee welcomed Professor George Smith MBE, Chairman, and Rosalind Pearce, Chief Executive Officer, of Healthwatch Oxfordshire (HWO) to present their regular update of issues/activities (JHO5). They undertook to circulate a list of all those invited to the postponed July 2017 primary care workshop to all members of the Committee. This workshop involved representatives from the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG) , local Patient Participation Groups (PPG’s), local GPs and Locality Forum representatives, local politicians, members of the public and representatives from various voluntary organisations. Its aim was to help all to understand the issues involved for primary care in areas of Oxfordshire that were developing rapidly. Rosalind Pearce reported that the workshop was now scheduled to take place on 20 September 2017. She apologised for the inadvertent exclusion of local county councillors to the list and gave her assurances that in future they would be invited to similar events. The OCCG was urged by the Committee to take on such a role rather than the onus being on HWO to organise this types of event.

On a request from a member of the Committee, Rosalind Pearce also undertook to organise a stall in Thame about Stroke Awareness. HWO was encouraged to consider including South Oxfordshire in more of their planned events and to work with their counterparts across the border in Buckinghamshire. HWO was also urged to turn their attention to the Vale of White Horse area which was experiencing ‘stresses and strains’, including long waiting lists for services following patient discharge from hospital, for example in Physiotherapy and Speech Therapy, thus causing possible re-admittance to community hospitals and GP surgeries. This often gave a feeling of ‘abandonment’ for patients.

With reference to pages 28/30 of the HWO report, members of the Committee made reference to public concerns about the need for ensuring that there were no increases in GP surgery waiting times or in mental health support services for children as an outcome of the new proposals for Stroke Services within the community. In this regard, the Committee also added its concern in relation to difficulties experienced by the elderly when using IT to make an appointment, maybe resorting to a visit to Accident & Emergency. Rosalind Pearce added to these concerns stating that HWO had found people of a younger age continued to ask for face to face visits with the GP, rather than using Skype. She added that it was HWO’s view that designs for a new surgery could not be based on all patients owning a smart phone. Moreover that HWO was looking to develop a younger aspect of HWO which would include the voice of the young in debates.

When asked, Rosalind Pearce reported HWO’s concern that 400 patients from Deer Park surgery had not re-registered with another surgery. Furthermore, they planned to send out a co-authored letter alongside the OCCG to these patients emphasising that it was very important to do so for reasons of their own safety. She accepted the OCCG’s contention that there were always a number of people left on a register in these circumstances called ‘ghost patients’, who had maybe left the area. She agreed that it was vitally important that Deer Park was included in all that was taken forward in discussions regarding the Locality Primary Care Development Plan within the West Oxfordshire area. Members of the Committee asked the OCCG to help them understand how these numbers compared with those of other surgeries that had closed for whatever reason.

A Committee member advised the meeting that funding for GP surgeries was based on the Carhill Formula. He emphasised the importance of defining the ‘ghost patient’   as a normal patient to avoid the problem of that surgery being stripped of funding for that area. He advocated the continuation of the FP69 process which made it a duty to do so.

Rosalind Pearce reported that more concrete plans for working with patients had been put forward by the West Oxfordshire Locality Forum. She added that three cluster meetings were planned to take place in this area, the first of which was with local PPG’s to hear what they would wish to see included in the Plan for the future.

With reference to Part 4 of their report Rosalind Pearce was asked whether HWO had moved forward with their suggestions on what action was required on Health Inequalities. She responded that it was HWO’s view that a more strategic approach was required, adding that HWO was looking to work with the voluntary sector in order to produce a design for what could be done in this sector.

Professor George Smith concluded by stating that HWO warmly welcomed the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report. He wished to add concerns about the incoming numbers of population coming into Oxfordshire, demographics, the rising birth rate and the need for age distribution in order that the most appropriate health services could be designed. He added that HWO had the basic information in place, but needed a push to get the factual information required to undertake a modest project on the subject.

Both were thanked for the report.