Big Breakfast March 2016: Health
19th March 2016 – Health
Chair: Dr Jeremy Vevers Speakers: Dr Minesh Patel and Dr Stephen Bellamy
We learned a lot from this session about the difficulties faced by Primary Care and how these are being looked at by the local Horsham and Mid Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group. The chair of this group, Dr Minesh Patel, from Moatfield Surgery, East Grinstead, outlined some of these challenges.
He started with the budget and recruitment. Hospitals attract most attention and money. Politicians, when they want to be seen involved in the NHS, will be seen there with their sleeves rolled up. Primary care, where most people go when
they need help however, attracts only 8.7% of the NHS budget. This is despite the trend now for very short stays in hospital and discharge back to the community putting even more pressure on primary care. The recruitment problem is very severe and in some areas such as Cornwall 60% of practices are ready to hand back their NHS commitment! Our area is not immune. There used to be 30 applicants for every GP vacancy, now it is the other way round.
The public is obsessed about buildings and finds the rationalization of hospitals very difficult. Recently the growth of new housing has compounded the instability in primary care provision.
But it is not all doom and gloom. New ways of working are being explored and seen to be effective. Care Coordinators are an example of this. They look after the management of care of complex patient’s needs when they are discharged from hospital.
Dr Stephen Bellamy, from Ship Street Practice, East Grinstead, told us about the last 30 years in East Grinstead where there were 6 practices working well together round the Queen Victoria Hospital. But this did not t in with county boundaries so this cosy and effective arrangement was broken up. Over the last few years however there has been a reversion to that closer way of working.
Stephen talked about how primary care is much bigger than General Practice. Community Psychiatry, Education, Care of the Elderly and Community Nursing are just some examples, but there needed to be more effective communication links. There is a new CEO of NHS England, Simon Stevens, who wants to develop Primary Care in the home that emphasises the individual needs of day to day living that must be tailored for each person.
Questions followed about the use and lack of use of expensive local buildings funded by PFI (Private Finance Initiative), 111 Out of Hours help line, CAMS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) and the involvement of Patient Participation Groups amongst others.
Our next Big Breakfast is on Saturday 9th July
The next Big Breakfast is on Saturday 9th July when our elected Member of Parliament, Jeremy Quin will be joining us. With all that is going on over the summer such as the EU referendum, the report on Gatwick or Heathrow as well as the amount of development and pressures on local infrastructure it will be a lively affair and as soon as tickets are available in June, it will be wise to make an early booking via the Parish Office as there is a limit on places. In addition to this will be facing the wonderfully healthy prospect of Julia’s breakfast ably assisted by her team. It should be a good meeting.
Trevor Hodsdon
St John The Evangelist Church
