Issue - meetings

Further to Minute 13(2) of the meeting held on 3^rd September 2019, the Committee received a presentation providing the requested update, noting that the review now more broadly addresses the future of all of General Practice in Oldham, rather than just urgent primary care.  Work had commenced to develop a Primary Care Strategy that would identify priorities to address the known challenges in primary care which, despite those challenges, continues to improve and in the main was working as planned to reduce inequalities and improving health outcomes.  However, a new model of Primary Care is required to provide assurance as to the sustainability of the primary care offer, with a strong workforce who have manageable workloads that is able to meet the needs of the population and demands on the system. Work was also going progressing on a new assurance framework for General Practice in Oldham with a focus on both clinical quality and practice governance.

The presentation noted that the NHS Five Year Forward View set out the case for change in healthcare and that Oldham CCG aimed to enable general practice to play an even stronger role at the heart of more integrated out of hospital services.  Key themes considered were

·         addressing the increasing demands of an aging population and raised patient expectation and the service variations that arise due to the different contractors providing services;

·         sustaining a competent and motivated workforce and addressing the issue of a local aging workforce

·         the need for integrated approaches to address the complex contracting and funding arrangements within primary care;

·         the Walk-in Centre Review findings;

·         potential future services to deliver alternative urgent care services to deliver ambulatory care services and Long Term Condition management to support reductions in out-patient activity.

Work was also required to update and understand where each Primary Care Network (PCN) was against the PCN Maturity Matrix.  The Matrix was designed to support network leaders, working in collaboration with systems, places and other local leaders within neighbourhoods, to work together to develop individual Networks and support groups of Networks to collaborate in the planning and delivery of care across a number of roles.

Further to the presentation, the Committee was asked note that the health system was now in a similar position with regard to supply and demand that had existed at the time of the last review of GP contracts in 2014, and that the position of being able to offer people an appointment within two weeks had generally been lost.  While the situation was at saturation point nationally, Oldham did well on some metrics, a point not recognised by people.

A Member noted that the problem of people attending A&E unnecessarily continued, querying whether this was down to people not understanding a system which, while in transition, remained complex.  The issue, and the complexity of addressing it, was acknowledged, with it being clear that it took several years to educate people to access health care at the appropriate point.  The large numbers contacting practices  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12