At the September meeting of the South Reading CCG Governing Body it was decided that Vasectomy would no longer be available as a normal NHS treatment in the South Reading CCG area. .This measure is being applied across Western Berkshire and is thought to save about 75.000. However, there could be consequential costs which could easily reduce or eliminate the saving. To the public present this measure had rather the feeling of being a softening-up exercise for harsher cuts to come or perhaps a measure to demonstrate that something was being done. Patients with a medical need for vasectomy can still make an IFR (independent funding request) through their surgery for exceptional treatment.

John Broughall will be talking on "Antibiotic Resistance" at the Cafe Scientifique meeting on 3rd October at 7.30pm at Smokin Billys, 61 St Marys Butts, Reading RG1 2LG. All welcome. 20% off on food ordered beforehand!

Reading is creating a recovery college for those recovering from or living with mental illness. You can find out about the recovery college at an event organised by Reading Voluntary Action on Monday, 24th October.

We understand that Tilehurst Medical Centre, a branch of the practice provided by Dr Kumar and partners with main surgery at Milman Road, is to close in the near future. Patients have been notified by letter.

"Integrating Health and Social Care in Reading" will be the topic when Kevin Johnson, Reading's Integration Manager for Care Services, addresses South Reading Patient Voice on Wednesday, 26th October at 6pm at 94, London Street, Reading RG1 4SJ. The group will also hear news from Patient Participation Groups, the CCG, Healthwatch and discuss local NHS services.

Simon Warren, Interim Managing Director of Reading Borough Council, speaking at the Audit and Governance Committee meeting on 29th September, declared that the Council was on the cusp of going to law with the NHS CCGs over the costs of continuing care for Reading residents. Councillor Eileen McElligot noted that the Council and the CCGs had been in dispute for years about these costs. The relevant discussion can be seen at the archived webcast ot the audit and governance committee meeting on 29th September 2016 at about 43 mnutes and 50 seconds into the webcast. A council report from February 2016 gives the background showing that the funding for Continuing Health Care in South Reading is entirely out of line with that to comparable areas.

The BMA's Junior Doctors' Committee has called off strike action in its continuing opposition to the NHS Employers' new contract. We don't yet know what they will propose as actions against the NHS Providers' new contract.

Reading's Health and Wellbeing Board meets in public in the Council Chamber in the Civic Offices on Bridge Street at 2pm on 7th October. The agenda and papers will be found 5 days before the meeting on the meeting web site .

The information that patients need to understand how well their GP surgery is performing is the subject of the talk and discussion led by Francis Brown of the Priory Avenue PPG on 28th September at 6pm to 7.45pm at Reading Community Learning Centre, 94, London Street, RG1 4SJ. We will also hear news from the CCG and patient participation groups, Healthwatch and discuss our future activities. The meeting is open to everyone registered with a GP practice in the South Reading CCG clinical area.

Mr Luke March has been appointed as chair of the Western Berkshire Accountable Care System - a collaboration of the principal NHS organisations in Western Berkshire. We are facing a period of several years in which NHS funding growth will be around 1% per year on average - hardly enough to keep up with population growth, let alone the ageing of the population, increasing living standards or advances in medicine. In Western Berkshire the strategy for the NHS five-year forward view has been to bring together the principal parts of the NHS in the area into a place-based collaboration known as an Accountable Care System (ACS) which will seek ways of working together by agreement to improve health care and health system efficiency. The initial ACS will be formed by agreement between the Royal Berkshire Hospital Foundation Trust, the Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust and the four CCGs of Western Berkshire. The collaboration will be able to change pathways for patient treatment, change payment procedures and incentives between the partners, move activity from one site to another, perhaps from hospital to community but only by agreement, however hardly reached, between the partners. Mr March has been a non-executive director in the NHS since 1998. He was Chair of Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust from 2005 to 2013 and of the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases NHS Foundation Trust from 2013 to 2015. In addition he has also chaired the Audit Committee of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and worked as Group Company Secretary and Compliance Director of the TSB Group, Corporate Governance Director of the BT Group, Chief Executive of the mortgage industry regulator and most recently Group Compliance Director of the Royal Mail Group. He is also currently Chairman of the National Churches Trust and the Building Societies Trust and serves as Lay Canon on the Chapter of Salisbury Cathedral. Price Waterhouse Cooper consultants have been tasked with creating the new system of payments by the members of the ACS. It is hoped that the three local authorities of Western Berkshire will be able to join the ACS eventually as may the South Central Ambulance Foundation Trust.