Sometimes the press say good things about the NHS!

Dr Hugh Freeman, Chair, North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group

Dr Hugh Freeman…

I think we’ve all been aware of the recent NHS reforms – the biggest shake up in 60 years – and the rocky ride through Parliament of the Health and Social Care Act.

The media coverage was – by and large – negative.   So it’s refreshing – but we are not about to get complacent – to report that your local Clinical Commissioning Group has had some very positive coverage in recent weeks.

Last year Odiham Cottage Hospital closed its doors amidst a huge hue and cry with protests coming from all quarters.  We – North Hampshire’s Clinical Commissioning Group  – took this protest onboard and moved in quickly to work with the community and other healthcare providers to see what could be done to turn the situation around.

In March Odiham Cottage Hospital re-opened to provide day-care beds.  The service is now growing and is increasingly popular with the local community.

Working together as a community with other health and social care teams helped achieve this re-opening and it was captured by Meridian and BBC South cameras, reported on BBC Radio Surrey and on the pages of the Basingstoke Gazette.

 Last week we were pleased to see another North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group  joint initiative with working partners across Hampshire attracting positive media attention.  Something called a Gold Care card was launched for terminally ill patients in North Hampshire.

It’s a pilot scheme and it’s hoped the Gold Care card will help terminally ill patients stand out in the system as in need of urgent attention without too much explanation.

All our patients are important but the terminally ill need to stand out.  This pilot scheme attracted positive attention from the Basingstoke Gazette and the Basingstoke Observer.  If you want to know more about the Gold Care card click on the YouTube icon on our home page at  www.callevaccg.com where a short film will share some useful information for patients and carers.

But the good press hasn’t gone to our heads!  We are not about to rest on our laurels.  We are a new Clinical Commissioning Group and we want to do what’s best for the people of North Hampshire.

But we can only do that with the help of patients, the public and our many working partners across Hampshire.

And to know how we are doing we need feedback – have you got time to send a comment in the box below?  Your feedback is so important.

Shouldn’t GPs look after their patients before they start running the NHS?

Dr Hugh Freeman, Chair, North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group

I’ve been a GP for more than 30 years and I never get tired of answering questions.  Maybe that’s why I became a GP because I like problem solving and I like sharing information.

 

  But the question of  ‘GPs looking after patients before they start running the NHS’ is a good one…

It’s triggered by the new NHS reforms with patients and public hearing that GPs now have more power and budgets and are going to planning meetings –  instead of doing their ‘real’ job.  Well, this is not quite what’s happening. 

GPs in North Hampshire have banded together to form what is called a Clinical Commissioning Group.  These groups – and I will avoid calling them CCGs as jargon is banned from this blog – have been set up as part of the reforms outlined in the Health and Social Care Act to offer a more ‘bespoke’ service.

It means GPs will work closely together in a geographical area – using their knowledge of that local community – to provide better health care.

At the moment we – North Hampshire’s Clinical Commissioning Group – are at the shadow stage and will be until next April.  We have powers and responsibilities and a budget to spend but we are being shadowed by the Primary Care Trust until we find our feet.

Our role as a band of GPs working together is to commission – in other words buy – what’s needed for patients in North Hampshire.

This doesn’t mean every GP is spending time making these decisions and it doesn’t mean patients are being neglected.  In fact it’s quite the opposite.  Patients will have more chance than ever before of getting involved in their own healthcare and in the bigger local healthcare decisions.

So just as patients are saying they are worried about GPs being distracted by all this ‘power and responsibility’ – we as GPs are a little concerned that some patients won’t bother to use their voice to make themselves heard in this brave new world.

Are we right to be worried?

Are we really on the verge of a patient revolution?

Dr Hugh Freeman, Chair, North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group

I think the answer to this is YES.    

I’m Dr Hugh Freeman, chair of North Hampshire’s Clinical Commissioning Group.  This is my first blog and I am hoping it will become a regular forum for sharing and exchanging information.

As a GP I am asked questions all the time and one of the questions of the moment is ‘what’s all this about a patient revolution?’

Well, we can only have a revolution if patients rise up and take on the challenge.  The gauntlet – thrown down by the new NHS reforms – is for patients to not only get involved in their own health and wellbeing decisions, but also to have a bigger voice in how your local NHS evolves.

‘Are you ready to take charge of your own health and use your voice? …would be my question.  These are exciting and challenging times.  We must all take better care of ourselves and care enough about the NHS – our NHS – to get involved.

There are many ways to get involved just ask at your local surgery about Patient Participation Groups.  Just ask your GP what you can do to improve your own health.

As David Cameron said recently ‘getting society to take more responsibility’ is a big challenge.  It’s a challenge we face in the NHS. We all have to take better care of ourselves and not see the NHS as a magic wand with infinite resources.  It’s a precious resource and needs to be used wisely – by all of us for all of us.

A lot of the media coverage of the NHS reforms was gloomy, but if you look at what’s happening here in the Basingstoke area – all of us in North Hampshire now have a Clinical Commissioning Group that is committed to providing a more ‘bespoke’ service.  And because  North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group – has a solid knowledge of the local community we believe we really understand our patients’ needs.

Providing the right health care, in the right place, at the right time and at the right price is what drives us.  Putting patients at the centre of health care decisions is our goal.

And if you now have questions about ‘what is a clinical commissioning group’ I can always tackle that one in my next blog!

I’m told it can be lonely if you blog and no one sends you any feedback.  Surely someone has some questions for me?  You can do this by clicking ‘leave a comment’ in the box below.