Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from D R Friend and M Rose.

The Democratic and Corporate Services Manager advised that no notice had been received for the appointment of substitute members.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members in respect of business to be transacted on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

The Chairman has varied the public speaking procedure to permit public speaking on Agenda Item 5. Registered speakers will have 3 minutes to speak.

Members of the public wishing to speak must register to do so by no later than 2.00 pm on the second working day (Thursday) before the meeting.

The right to speak does not include the right to ask any questions of any District Councillor, Officer of the Council, invited attendee, or any other public speaker.

The Democratic and Corporate Services Manager advised that two members of the public had registered to speak on items on the agenda to which the public speaking protocol applied.

Local Primary and Community Care Services

·         Anne Matthews

·         Marsha Horne

A representative of NHS Kent and Medway will be in attendance to respond to the committees questions.

The Chairman welcomed the attendance of representatives from the NHS to answer the questions submitted by Members on the matter of Local Primary and Community Care Services.

The following representatives were present:

·         Sukh Singh - Director of Primary Care

·         Natalie Davies - ICB Chief of Staff

·         Vincent Badu - ICB Chief Strategy Officer

·         Mike Gilbert - Executive Director of Corporate Governance

The key questions submitted by Members were as followed:

Commissioned Services

(1)     Which services are directly commissioned by GP's and why?

(2)     Please confirm to us which services GPs will be commissioning directly taking into account the difficulties in now getting GP appointments.

Response: 

General Practice (GPs) do not directly commission services. GP providers are independent contractors who deliver the service requirements of the GP contract to their patient population.   NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB) has delegated responsibility from NHS England for commissioning GP services.

General practices themselves are commissioned at various levels to provide additional services (in addition to core GP services) to their patient populations, these services include:

·         Phlebotomy

·         Minor surgery

·         Vaccinations and Immunisations

·         Enhanced GP access

·         Enhanced Health in Care Homes

These services allow practices or primary care networks (PCN’s) to expand their workforce and deliver services to their local patient population.

Changes to Services

(3)     What changes in local primary, community and hospital services are being considered now and, in the future, to achieve the goals set out in the long-term plan?

(4)     Are any other changes in local primary, community and hospital services being made or considered as a result of pressures or priorities?

(5)     The change to phlebotomy service provision at Deal Hospital has understandably raised concerns over the future of other services offered there. What are the plans for service provision at Deal Hospital over the next five years?

(6)     With bus services being reduced public transport accessibility to major hospitals is becoming more difficult. What is the NHS doing to address this and are they looking at making more diagnostic tests more accessible locally?

Response:

Community diagnostics and developing integrated pathways

The development of a Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC) at Buckland Hospital will provide greater opportunities to deliver a more localised ‘one stop’ treatment and health promotion service for people living in east Kent. The Buckland site has benefits of integrating with existing outpatient and Urgent Treatment Centre services, which gives local residents quicker access to diagnostic imaging as well as the site becoming a focal point for the delivery of local, accessible health care. The Community Diagnostic Centre ‘hub and spoke’ model also enables residents the ability to access better integrated primary, secondary and community care services associated with diagnostic, community, and outpatient care.

The East Kent Health and Care Partnership^[1], supports the development of a provider collaborative approach which will bring GPs and other clinicians together to jointly deliver end-to-end care pathways, making best use of clinical and professional resource, as well as maximising opportunities to diagnose and treat conditions without referral to an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.