The Annual General Meeting of the Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will be streamed live on YouTube at 15.30 on Wednesday, 28th October. Please use

The Berkshire West CCG has its AGM on 8the September from 10.00am to 11.30am online. The regular meeting of the CCG follows from 11.30am to 2pm. Requests to attend and questions should be sent tobwccg.enquiries@net.net.

A key part of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy , published in July 2019, is the introduction of a framework for Patient Safety Partners to provide guidance on how the NHS can involve patients and their carers in their own safety, as well as being partners alongside staff in improving patient safety in NHS organisations. You can be part of a consultation on the draft framework over the next few months. .... Working with patients, carers, lay people, NHS frontline staff and commissioners, NHS England and Improvement have developed a draft Framework for involving patients in patient safety, which they are now consulting on ahead of publishing a final version expected in Spring 2021. The framework is in two sections. The first describes how organisations should support patients, their families and carers to be directly involved in their own or their loved ones safety; and the second how organisations should support patients, carers, family members or other lay people to be involved in wider governance of safety activities. As part of the consultation NHS England and Improvement are planning a number of virtual focus groups during the last week of September and October to hear your views on the draft 'Framework for involving patients in patient safety' and your feedback, comments and ideas will be used to help in finalising the framework, before publishing a final version. Provisional dates for focus groups in Sep/Oct 2020 these are:

1. Tues 29th Sep - 11am - 12noon
2. Wed 30th Sep - 3.30pm- 4.30pm
3. Fri 2nd Oct - 2pm - 3pm
4. Wed 7th Oct - 3pm - 4pm
5. Fri 9th Oct - 2pm - 3pm
6. Mon 12th Oct - 11am - 12noon
7. Tues 13th Oct - 1.30pm - 2.30pm
8. Web 14th Oct - 11.30am - 12.30pm

Please email Douglas Findlay at docfindlay@gmail.com if you have an interest in attending.

The Patient's Association is running a survey on patients feelings about their GP surgery premises and how safe they would feel in going to a face-to-face appointment there while Covid-19 is still around. Please give your views on this important topic by clicking here and completing the survey.

Berkshire West CCG is consulting on the provision of Hydrotherapy. Please visit the web page to give your views. The Hydrotherapy pool is located on the West side of the RBH Reading site near the West Buildings from which Audiology and ENT are about to move their clinics. That area wiould be available for redevelopment if the pool was moved or removed.

The Government has announced that Public Health England is to be broken up and a new body "The Institute for Health Protection" is to be set up to focus on "external threats" to health, such as epidemics and biological weapons. But what will happen to vaccination, addiction prevention, reduction of obesity is unclear. The Royal Society for Public Health has stressed the importance of the prevention agenda.

South Reading Patient Voice meetings online via Zoom at 6pm on Wednesday 19th August 2020. We will discus many asects of the local health services - moves of Royal Berks clinics, redevelopment of the Royal Berks hospital, say-say access to primary care, patient safety etc. Please see the agenda attached. Contact arrangements have been circulated to members. If interested in membership please contact Tom Lake, Information Officer .

Reading Healthwatch has announced that the Royal Berks Hospital is to move clinics for Audiology, ENT and Plastic Surgery to Townlands Memorial hospital in Henley-on-Thames. Healthwatch Reading are inviting comments from the public so please follow the link and make yourself heard. WE HAVE NOW LEARNED THAT THE MOVE IS BASED ON AN INITIAL 12-MONTH LEASE with follow-up evaluation so facilities better during the COVID-19 period are pertinent. The move is to the upper floor of the Townlands Memorial "hospital" (it is really a clinic) in Henley-on-Thames which is held by Oxford Health on a 25-year PPP deal. The upper floor was intended for a rehabilitation ward and palliative care unit, but neither was found to be required later and so has not been in use since the opening in 2017. Unfortunately parking at the site is limited and access constrained which will be a difficulty for many who would be willing to drive to Henley.

One of the best sources of information on the state of the Coronavirus pandemic in the UK is the smartphone app "Covid Symptom Study" supplied by Zoe Global Ltd to the research team at King's College London under Prof Tim Spector, who is the organiser of the study. Please download and use the app yourself if you have the equipment - for Android phones from your Play Store, for Apple phones from your App Store, under the name "Covid Symptom Study". The associated study has shown about a doubling of prevalence of Covid-19 in Reading during August with the figure at 1030 cases per million indicating about 170 active cases in Reading at 13th August, up from about 70 in late July. All are urged to redouble their precautions against the virus. By 21st August the figure is down to 414 per million - the earlier figure looks like a temporary aberration.

In a flurry of consultations - you are now asked to give your views on improving the Royal Berkshire Hospital Trust's website.