Issue - meetings

Mr P Robinson, Eastern & Coastal Kent Patient and Public Involvement Forum, will be in attendance for this item.

(Mr P Robinson, Eastern & Coastal Kent Patient and Public Involvement Forum representative was in attendance for this item)

(1)       Mr Robinson submitted a paper setting out details relating to:-

·                    the history of Out of Hours service provision by StourCare;

·                    ongoing work by the Eastern & Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust, who were reviewing the decision to close the Out of Hours base in Herne Bay;

·                    plans to co-locate the Out of Hours service with the Emergency Care Centre at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital as soon as possible; and

·                    ensuring that a weekend service remained at Herne Bay.

(2)       Work undertaken by the Canterbury & Coastal locality group of the Eastern & Coastal Kent PCT Patient and Public Involvement Forum demonstrated that the demography and geography of the area indicated the need for two Out of Hours bases.  Mr Robinson said the group would like to see that patients, whatever their location, were offered the base of their choice.  The number of patients using Herne Bay was substantial, making it clear to the Forum that patients from coastal areas should continue to be offered the option of attending either Canterbury or Herne Bay or other locations and that Herne Bay Out of Hours base should continue in existence until further notice.

(3)       The Committee noted that this recommendation had been conveyed to Ann Sutton, Chief Executive of Eastern & Coastal Kent PCT.

(4)       The Committee noted that the Primary Care Trust Co-location Review Group was to meet later on that afternoon and it was agreed that the Committee would be updated on this at its next meeting.

RESOLVED:-

(a)       that the position be noted.