Do you want to understand the new NHS reforms?

The first of our four Road Shows kicked off this week at our Shakespeare House Health Centre in Popley. As it was the first we were feeling a little nervous about how it would go. It was a great success I am relieved to say.

 We started the evening with my colleague Dr Sam Hullah recalling the many battles to bring about Clinical Commissioning Groups like North Hampshire. It’s been a long struggle to get to the stage where we are now a shadow Clinical Commissioning Group.  Sam reminded everyone that the Health and Social Care Bill which is now an Act holds the record for more changes to a parliamentary bill than any other in the history of legislation. And we showed a short film introducing US  and explaining our vision and health care priorities.

North Hampshire CCG Road Show

 The film was a success with one person very kindly saying it was so interesting it should be shown on BBC South Today!  It is now available to view on YouTube and you can link directly from our website. 

 My presentation about the nitty gritty of commissioning health care provoked almost an hour of questions. The questions were robust, intelligent and challenging from ‘how do you prioritise’ what health care to commission to ‘how do you take responsibility for patient experience and delivery of service beyond primary care’.

We prioritise what health care to buy for North Hampshire by knowing what the needs of the local population are. We are helped with this task by fantastic public health research. We use a tool called the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and this helps us identify what our local population needs. So what I’m saying is that we prioritise based on local knowledge and needs.

And yes we do take responsibility for patient experience and delivery of service. The question was based around hospital care. So I explained at the Road Show that we as a CCG buy hospital services and so it’s important to know that the patient outcomes were good and we got value for money. We have systems in place to make sure we know what happens to patients and that a good service is delivered, but we will be looking to improve the way we gather first hand experience from patients.

 I think one of the most fascinating comments last night was about ‘feedback’ and how some see feedback as just a way of complaining when really it should be the good as well as the bad. Feedback from patients is crucial. We need to know what works and what doesn’t so that together we can bring about change.

 All in all it was a good and positive start to the Road Shows. Looking forward to the next one tonight at  Chawton Park Surgery in Alton.  Do come along. And there are two more next week so plenty of opportunities to learn about local health care and what it means to you.