Issue - meetings

The Panel considered the report of the Director of System Delivery, NHS Southampton City Clinical Care Group (CCG), providing the Panel with an update on developments relating to primary care in Southampton.

James Rimmer - Managing Director, NHS Southampton City CCG, Phil Aubrey-Harris – Associate Director of Primary Care, NHS Southampton City CCG and Dr Mark Kelsey Chair of NHS Southampton City CCG were in attendance and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the meeting.

The Panel discussed a number of points including:

·  the need for the estates review.  It was explained that the review would produce detailed estates plans for primary care for each city locality that will form a core component of the CCG and partner organisations delivery plans for 2020/21 and beyond; 

·  the numbers of GP practices within the City.  The Panel noted that the number of practices across the City had reduced but questioned whether the number of available doctors and nursing staff had declined.  The Panel discussed the difficulties in attracting staff to undertake the various roles of a GP and noted that most of the practices within the City were private businesses.  It was explained that as private businesses with differing priorities it was difficult to drive a uniformed approach to primary care in the City.

·  the potential opportunities for practices to provide information to patients on hold whilst calling the surgery.  It was acknowledge that more could be done to signpost patient pathways that could potentially relieve the workload of GPs and enable more effective treatment for patients;

RESOLVED that

(i)  the Panel agreed that at this stage the proposed Estates Review does not constitute a substantial variation or development and therefore does not require separate consultation with the Panel, however, the Panel did request that the review terms of reference were circulated to HOSP members.

(ii)  That, in addition to patient list numbers and practice boundaries, the Panel are provided with the following information from NHS Southampton City CCG:

a.  The number of GPs, nurses and allied health professionals working within each registered GP practice in Southampton.

b.  The ratio of GPs per 10,000 population in Southampton over a ten year period.

(iii)  That, to improve access to GP appointments, consideration is given to encouraging GP practices to provide advice on answerphone messages of the alternative options that are available to obtain an appointment with a GP in Southampton.