MINUTES OF THE 38th MEETING OF THE COALFIELD FORUM
8.4.13 AT HETTON MEDICAL CENTRE
APOLOGIES: Brian Nelson, Julie Whitehouse, Jim Grieves, Margaret Dunn, Geoff Armstrong, Gloria Middleton, Janice Collier.
PRESENT: Colin Calder (chair), Malcolm Eves (secretary), Margaret and Brian Doyle, Kathleen Turnbull (Westbourne Medical Centre).
Anne Farrow, Dorothy Simpson, Norma Bright, Harry Brown (Herrington Medical Centre).
Karen Copeland (Houghton Medical Centre).
Gladys McKillup (Hetton Medical Centre).
Jackie Gillespie, Aileen Sullivan (SCCG).
Audrey Polkinghorn, observer (Silksworth Church View Medical Centre).
Aileen and Audrey were welcomed to the meeting.
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING: Agreed as a true record.
MATTERS ARISING:
Healthwatch: Karen reported that staff were being recruited but the new organisation was yet to have IT capability. Audrey, too, was involved. People from voluntary groups were being recruited and trained. Much of the infrastructure was yet to be established.
Locality groups: a budget of £20,000 was given which could not be used towards the opening of the MIU. Defibrillators have been purchased for each practice and they have received also copies of the Wellbeing structure to help patients access services. Advertising is guiding patients to access the appropriate out-of-hours services. Further budget allocations will help to meet the needs of the localities.
CCG: Dr Jackie Gillespie noted that Penny Davison was the new Coalfield Commissioning Manager and she will work with our practices. The CCG will be seeking the views of practice managers on budget needs/priorities. The CCG can apply for a Quality Premium Budget which brings in £5 per patient. Meetings within the Coalfield area will assess needs and challenges which will go into the SCCG Plan to 2017.
MIU: procurement procedures are continuing so we are looking still at an opening in the autumn.
AILEEN SULLIVAN: one of two lay members of the CCG, spoke about her new role. The emphasis of her role is patient participation. Aileen, who has a background in nursing and midwifery, said the public needs to have trust in the new organisation which needed to demonstrate patient involvement.
It was essential to listen to the public and patients and understand their expectations. She will establish close links with Healthwatch and with patients via the five localities (284,000 people and over 300 voluntary groups).Aileen expects, as lay member, to pose challenges to the CCG in the area of patient care. She will chair a group of clinicians (Quality and Safety Committee) looking at safety reports and complaints. This will look also at hospital infections and the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults. She will carry out visits within City of Sunderland Hospitals to monitor quality of provision.
That which is given to the public must be understandable. She said she wanted to develop the good practice of the LEBS. Kathleen asked how the committee would be made aware of what was happening. Aileen said she wanted to develop a two way process of communication with the locality groups, LEBS and the voluntary sector. N.B. most forum members were unaware of a City Community Spirit initiative which seeks the views of a range of people.
Aileen would make regular visits to the locality groups, receive minutes and take on board concerns of patients. Colin thanked her for her input to the meeting.
AGENDA ITEMS: Malcolm asked members to send to him any items they wanted listing on a future agenda. He distributed the SCCG ‘plan on a page’ 2012-2017 which was provided by Gloria.
NEXT MEETING: Monday May 20th 6pm at Hetton Medical Centre.