Becoming an NHS statutory Body

Dr Sam Hullah, Chief Clinical Officer

Well the 1^st of April came and went and North Hampshire CCG came into being as a statutory NHS body.  The first working day was Tuesday the 2^nd and the team assembled for our first ever briefing.  As Accountable Officer it was my job to rally the troops. Organisational culture is very topical in the NHS right now and so I felt it was important to set the tone for how I wanted our CCG to work.

There is no substitute for hard work and this has characterised the organisation over the last year.  We are on a mission to improve the health and wellbeing of our patient population and hard work will be needed if we are to be successful.  We will also need self belief, and in addition, to quote a NHS buzzword, resilience.  Setbacks and disappointments are inevitable but we shall remain positive and look to turn disappointments into opportunities.

A good team spirit has built up over the last twelve months; we need to build on that and maintain high levels of trust and mutual support.  And finally we need to keep our CCG as a great place to work.  We have done many interviews over the last few months and it is pleasantly surprising how many candidates have commented on how the style of our CCG is one of the things that attracted them to the job.

So hard work, self belief, resilience and team spirit will be the characteristics of our CCG.

In that spirit we set about our first week, helped at long last by the addition of some new team members.  And it was very much business as usual but with the added excitement of knowing that now we were “doing it for real”.

Nobody at our CCG is under any illusions about the magnitude of task we face in bringing about whole system reform with the intentions of not only improving patient care but achieving that within the financial resources available to us.  Our locality has been plagued for decades with an unfair allocation of NHS money, so at the same time as we work on many clinical pathways it is my firm intention to challenge, at the highest levels, the funding formula which sees our patients get almost the lowest per head funding of any CCG in the country.

On a brighter note we are very much looking forward to moving to our new premises in Chineham Business Park, on June 13th 2013.  We have been made very welcome at Old Basing Surgery and have got used to boxing and coxing for space but we really have outgrown the space and need to move on, despite the sentimental attachment we have built up over the last 18 months.

There is much to do but I now have three days a week in which I can lead our CCG forward.  I am, and shall always be, enormously grateful to my partners at Crown Heights for allowing me to take up this once-in-a-few lifetime opportunity; the first weeks is over but the challenge has just begun!

Public’s turn to talk about the new NHS shake-up

Dr Hugh Freeman

On a glorious summer night we held the second of our summer Road Shows and we worried that the soaring temperatures would keep people away.  Thankfully we were wrong and the turnout at our Chawton Park Surgery in Alton was very good.

The theme of the evening was to share more details about what a Clinical Commissioning Group is and what it does.  We shared details about our commissioning priorities and our vision for the future.  We also showed a short film about us, available to watch on our website and as part of it had been filmed in Alton it went down very well with those who came along.

Taking questions after the presentations was fascinating because the questions were so different to those raised at the first road show at Shakespeare House Health Centre in Popley.  It demonstrated to us that there are a lot of questions out there and we need to provide the answers.

Some of the questions centred on the relationship between North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group and our local hospitals.  My colleague, Dr Sam Hullah, explained that we are working with the hospitals so that they see themselves as part of the pathway to better health care and not just as a place for surgical procedures.  This is a big change of attitude.  Sam also explained that, at the moment, we are working with Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust to change how the Emergency Department works and how it looks.   At the moment patients have a confusing choice of the Out of Hours Service, the walk-in Hampshire Health Centre and the Emergency Department.  We want to take all of these elements into one less confusing unit.

Another interesting question was about the voluntary sector and how we will work with them.  Communications Manager, Anne Phillips, explained that she has already been involved in a series of voluntary sector meetings and has more planned.  It’s an area where we really feel we can work together in a very positive way.

Anne also had a question for the audience.  She asked those gathered if they really wanted to be involved in health care.  The answer was a resounding yes, they do want to know what the Clinical Commissioning Group is up to and they want to use their voice and their experiences.

Two pharmacists from Boots the Chemist came along to the Road Show.  They asked what they could do to support us – North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group – and expressed their concern about medicine waste.  Sam supplied some shocking figures for North Hampshire – between £500k and £1m is wasted in this area alone on medicines that don’t get used.  Such a waste…and possibly the subject of another blog!

How To Change The Lives of People With Diabetes

Dr Hugh Freeman, Chair, North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group

One of the things I am really enjoying about the new NHS reforms is working even more closely with the local community on health care decisions.

 

Diabetes is a huge problem nationally and it is of great concern in North Hampshire.  Nationally 5% of the adult population has diabetes –  in North Hampshire that figure is double at 10%.  A worrying statistic.

 

Recently my colleagues have been meeting with Diabetes UK to see how a national charity and we at North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning  can work together to improve the lives of people living with diabetes in North Hampshire.

 

One of the first ways is to support Diabetes UK in its recruitment of a Diabetes Service Champion for North Hampshire.  This is a volunteer role, but full training will be provided and the Service Champion will have help from a regional manager.

 

The closing date for applications is July 2nd and this is a role we at North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group would like to see filled.    The Service Champion will canvas local opinion on services for those with diabetes and will be offering up suggestions for improvements.

 

As North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group examines diabetic care to see if the right care, at the right time, in the right place, and at the right cost is being delivered locally then the Service Champion could play a key role in this debate.

 

This is an opportunity to change lives and futures for people with diabetes in North Hampshire so if you think you or someone you know could fill this volunteer role there is more information in News & Events on our website North Hampshire CCG or contact Jill Steaton at Diabetes UK  for an application form.

 

We have shared goals – like Diabetes UK –  North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group wants to make sure people with diabetes receive high-quality care and that they know what care to expect.

 

Is diabetes something you care passionately about?