Issue - meetings

Jayne Macdonald, Head of Primary Care and Community Contracts and Lynne Selman, Director of Citizen Engagement and Communications, Eastern & Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust will be in attendance for this item.

(Peter Robinson, Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care PPIF, Jayne MacDonald, Head of Primary Care and Community Contracts, and Lynne Selman, Director of Citizen Engagement and Communications, Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT, were in attendance for this item)

(1)       Mr Robinson set out the background to the StourCare Out-of-Hours service and the change to the contract, which had been the subject of a recent review after six months of operation.  He stated that joint working between the Forum and the NHS Overview and Scrutiny Committee had led to a satisfactory outcome.  He made the Committee aware that there would be a full review of the Out-of-Hours Service in late 2007 or early 2008 for the PCT area and the existing contract had, therefore, been extended to the end of May 2008.  He stated that he believed the PPIF and the NHS Overview and Scrutiny Committee should be involved in this review at an early stage.

(2)       Ms Jones stated that, as a result of the work of the PPIF, there had been a renegotiation of the contract between the PCT and StourCare and a satisfactory result for the public in the area had been achieved.  She highlighted the fact that the PCT was part of the national pilot for the Urgent Care Review programme.  Work on this had started and the PPIF had a representative on the Project Board.

(3)       In relation to engaging with the public and organisations, Ms Selman stated that the PCT was setting up a “virtual panel” across the PCT area to use for consultation for the Urgent Care pilot.  This was a key part of their ongoing work.

(4)       The Chairman expressed the Committee’s thanks to Mr Robinson for the detailed piece of work that the PPIF had undertaken and stated that this was a good example of PPIFs being the “eyes and ears” of the NHS Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

(5)       RESOLVED that the update on StourCare Out-of-Hours Service be welcomed and noted.