Agenda item

The Committee received an update report from the Director of Commissioning, Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield Clinical Commissioning Group about the Review of Extended and Enhanced Primary Care Access in the DDES CCG area (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Director of Commissioning highlighted the key areas following the public consultation of the review that warranted further consideration including:-

·         Transport

·         Issues with the NHS 111 Service

·         Use of services increasing

·         Accessibility of NHS 111 service for patients with a learning disability

·         Public lack of understanding of how to access services

The Director of Commissioning went on to explain that the NHS Long Term Plan and new GP contract had been published.  This would change the way in which GP delivered services in future, providing two extended access services via a hub and by individual practices.  The change would take effect from July 2019 and a full update would be provided to committee at a special meeting to be arranged.

The Chairman requested a map of where all of the TAPs were based.  The Director of Commissioning would provide this and explained that the TAPs did not have to be geographically networked, following a question from Councillor Temple, however, other requirements such as community and district nurses had to be in a sensible geographical location that made sense.

Councillor Smith referred to a recent presentation to the review group from the Director of Primary Care and Engagement about GP Primary Care Teams and the Chairman suggested that this should be presented to full committee.

The Principal Overview and Scrutiny Officer informed the committee that a joint development session with the Health and Wellbeing Board had been arranged to discuss NHS planning arrangements including how the TAPs worked.

Following a request from the Chairman, the Director of Commissioning confirmed that service usage for GP practices would be brought out in the presentation at the session.

Resolved that:

1.            The report be received;

2.            The Committee note the actions taken to address issued raised during the consultation

3.            The Committee note the links between this consultation and the changes in the GP contract

4.                  The Committee receive the outcome of the consultation process and proposed delivery model at a future meeting.