The Western Berkshire federation covers 4 CCG areas including South Reading CCG area. The federation's Primary Care Commissioning Committee has published its first quality report on primary care in the CCGs of the federation. These don't identify individual GP practices but aggregate the performance over the whole CCG.

The Berkshire West Primary Care Commissioning Committee meets in public at the Oakwood Centre, Headley Road, Woodley, Berkshire,RG5 4JZ from 13.00 to 16.00 on Wednesday, 14th June. To attend please register here or by telephoning 0300 123 6264 by 12 noon on Tuesday, 13th. Questions relating to the agenda should be submitted by 5pm on Monday, 12th June by email to ppiteam.berkshirewest@nhs.net or by telephoning 0300 123 6264.

The Governing Body of South Reading CCG meets in public at 9.30-12,30 on Wednesday 7th June 2017 at the Museum of English Rural Life, Redlands Road, RG1 5EX. To book your attendance or to find out about asking questions at the end of the meeting please see here.

South Reading Patient Voice will be meeting at 6pm on Wednesday, 31st May at 94, London Street, Reading RG14SJ - Reading Community Learning Centre. We will hear a talk about Macmillan Cancer Awareness Education in the Community from organiser Nisha Sharma and Christine Cowap of Macmillan Cancer Charity. Activity in Reading is being modelled on successful work in Rushmoor near Aldershot where Rushmoor Healthy Living has carried out similar work with its extensive local Nepali community and other less engaged groups. We will also discuss news from local Patient Participation Groups and the local health economy.

Western Berkshire CCGs will be hosting a discussion meeting for patients to give their views on the Musculoskeletal service which is being reviewed by the 4 CCGs of Western Berkshire at present. The meeting will be held at NHS 57-59, Bath Road, RG30 2BA from 4pm to 6pm on Monday 15th May. The site is served by bus route JetBlack 1 coming from Reading - the 15.25pm service from Blagrave Street stop EP should be suitable. There is also free parking at the site, although spaces can be difficult to find. Joe Smart, the review lead notes in his invitation, "The main topic for discussion will specifically surround any and all of the many aspects of musculoskeletal conditions (MSK) which includes over 200 different conditions affecting the human frame, for example joints, bones, muscles, soft tissue problems, rheumatology, chronic pain and orthopaedics just to name a few of them. We are very much aware that 1 in 7 GP appointments are MSK related and we are really keen to hear your thoughts on the current service, what is working for you, what is not working so well and in particular how you would like the service to look in the future." Tea and Coffee and light refreshments will be offered. For any enquiries about the event email joe.smart@nhs.net or phone 0779907084.

The Patients' Association has started its election campaign "Vote 4 The NHS" with a campaign website covering the positions of parties on the NHS and related news and an email newsletter that you can sign up to. The five headline priorities of the Patients' Association for this election are:

• Health and social care must be adequately funded
• Health and social care must be transformed to meet peoples needs
• Health and social care must be person-centred
• Health and social care must be safe and compassionate
• Brexit must be made to work for health and social care

Mental Health Awareness Week 2017 runs from 8th May to 14th May. In Reading we have quite a few events for this week. 

• Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust provides the Psychological Medicine Service (the RBH Mental Health Liaison Service) at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. The team will man a stand at the upper level of the main entrance to RBH in Craven Road on Wednesday 10th May during the day.
• Utulivu and ACRE willhost a conference on Dementia with special reference to BME residents at the Reading Hilton Hotel, Drake Way, Reading RG2 0GQ on Friday 19th May from 10.00 to 14.30. Contact utulivucoordinator@live.co.uk or phone 07828307997
• Reading Your Way will host an open afternoon at its Rupert Square home (1 Rupert Square, RG1 3HE) on Thursday, 11th May from 12,00 to 16.00
• Compass who run the Recovery College in Reading will be at Central Library on Wednesday 10th May in the afternoon to talk to library users about their needs and what Compass is offering.
• Berkshire Healthcare will have a team at IRIS, the drug and alcohol addiction service, on Friday 12th May in the morning at 4 Waylen St, Reading RG1 7UR

South Reading Patient Voice will be meeting at 6pm on Wednesday, 26th April at 94, London Street, Reading RG14SJ - Reading Community Learning Centre. We will discuss holding a Health and Social Care Hustings in the General Election and what sort of questions should be put to the candidates. We will also hear news from local practices PPGs and from Reading Healthwatch.

Western Berkshire CCGs are consulting on their implementation of the nationally announced policy of ending the prescription of certain common medicines and special foods - such as paracetamol and gluten-free foods.You can answer a consultation on this by clicking here . The consultation also asks about changes and restrictions on repeat prescriptions and on the prescribing of vitamins, suplements, sunscreen and camouflage preparations. The consultation ends on 28th April 2017. It is known that the process of prescription is relatively costly - designed to safely distribute potentially harnful and costly medicines. Paracetamol and Ibuprofen are relatively cheap, and it is claimed that gluten-free foods have become more widely available and cheaper. There is still concern for those who find themselves in straitened circumstances, perhaps on benefits. The proposal is that the GP should advise the patient to make an Independent Funding Request (IFR) if they find it difficult to purchase these medicines or foods. The IFR committee, which approves these exceptional prescriptions, is thought to meet monthly, so there is potentially a considerable delay. Would not if be more efficient and more likely to provide continuuty of care if GPs were themselves allowed to make this decision and prescribe these medicines and foods for those in difficulty?

Western Berkshire, covering Reading, Wokingham and Newbury areas, has been selected as one of 9 areas (most others are STP areas) to have early Accountable Care Systems status. This gives the area full control over more of its funding, including primary care and specialist care and delivers more freedom for the commissioners. NHS providers in the area will integrate horizontally to improve patient treatment pathways. GP practices are expected to integrate into units serving 30,000 to 50,000 patients which can deliver a wide variety of services to their population. The emphasis will be more on integration and cooperation than on competitive tendering. The requirements for areas to become Accountable Care Systems are the following demands which make a radical shift away from terndering individual services or practices to the management of population health over a wide area:

• Agree an accountable performance contract with NHS England and NHS Improvement that can credibly commit to make faster improvements in the key deliverables set out in this Plan for 2017/18 and 2018/19.
• Together manage funding for their defined population, committing to shared performance goals and a financial system control total across CCGs and providers. Thereby moving beyond click of the turnstile tariff payments where appropriate, more assertively moderating demand growth, deploying their shared workforce and facilities, and effectively abolishing the annual transactional contractual purchaser/provider negotiations within their area.
• Create an effective collective decision making and governance structure, aligning the ongoing and continuing individual statutory accountabilities of their constituent bodies.
• Demonstrate how their provider organisations will operate on a horizontally integrated basis, whether virtually or through actual mergers, for example, having one hospital on several sites through clinically networked service delivery.
• Demonstrate how they will simultaneously also operate as a vertically integrated care system, partnering with local GP practices formed into clinical hubs serving 30,000-50,000 populations. In every case this will also mean a new relationship with local community and mental health providers as well as health and mental health providers and social services.
• Deploy (or partner with third party experts to access) rigorous and validated population health management capabilities that improve prevention, enhance patient activation and supported self- management for long term conditions, manage avoidable demand, and reduce unwarranted variation in line with the RightCare programme.
• Establish clear mechanisms by which residents within the ACS defined local population will still be able to exercise patient choice over where they are treated for elective care, and increasingly using their personal health budgets where these are coming into operation. To support patient choice, payment is made to the third-party provider from the ACS budget.