Berkshire Health Network is the main mechanism for the local NHS to communicate with public and patients about local public consultations, public meetings and announcements of major changes to the NHS. You can register with the Berkshire Health Network to receive notifications and log in to reply to consultations or amend your profile of interests and personal details.

There will be a chance for the public to sit in on the proceedings of the South Reading CCG Governing Body on 1st June 2016 when it meets at 9.30am - 12.30am at the Museum of English Rural Life on Craven Road. Agenda and papers are found on the website of the South Reading CCG. The proceedings cover the reports of the Chair and Chief Officer, which will contain an update on the major reorganisation under way at present under the title "Sustainability and Transformation Planning". Also the reports on quality, public engagement, performance and finance. Attendance should be noted by email to the Berkshire West Public Involvement Team or by telephone to 0118 982 2709.

South Reading Patient Voice meets again on Wednesday, 25th May at 6pm at Reading Community Learning Centre, 94, London Street, RG1 4SJ. Three short talks by members of the group will provide insights into widely different areas of the health economy. Douglas Findlay will talk about the new Sustainability and Transformation Plan areas, Shaheen Kausar will talk about Health, Language and the work of the Reading Community Learning Centre, and Philip Lowry will talk about his experiences in early work with human growth hormone, and how it looked in retrospect. As usual we will review news from Patient Participation Groups around the CCG area and hear news from the CCG and Healthwatch Reading.

The state of Reading's health and wellbeing will be presented by Kim Wilkins of Reading Borough Council's Public Health team along with a look at how the state of our health is assessed and how it is used by our CCG in planning developments in health care. Click here to get started with JSNA = Joint Strategic Needs Assessment for Reading. We will also be receiving news from Patient Participation Groups, from Healthwatch and from our CCG as well as national NHS news of interest to us. CCG area.

Dr Gerard D'Cruz will be talking about the planned GP Chambers in Craven Road at our next meeting on Wednesday, 30th March at 6pm, at 94, London Street, RG1 4SJ. We will also discuss news about local health and social care, items from Healthwatch Reading, from South Reading CCG and from patient participation groups at surgeries in the South Reading CCG area.

South Reading Patient Voice meets again on Wednesday, 25th May at 6pm at Reading Community Learning Centre, 94, London Street, RG1 4SJ. Three short talks by members of the group will provide insights into widely different areas of the health economy. Douglas Findlay will talk about the new Sustainability and Transformation Plan areas, Shaheen Kausar will talk about Health, Language and the work of the Reading Community Learning Centre, and Philip Lowry will talk about his experiences in early work with human growth hormone, and how it looked in retrospect. As usual we will review news from Patient Participation Groups around the CCG area and hear news from the CCG and Healthwatch Reading.

 South Reading Patient Voice has written to the leader of the new COBWeB area (Commissioning for Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Western Berkshire) asking for patients and public to be involved in the five year planning which is due to be presented in June 2016 and finalised in July 2016. The chief executive of Oxfordshire, David Smith, has been appointed by NHS England to lead five-year planning for sustainability (sticking to budgets) and transformation (changing so as to be able to meet or exceed targets and still stick to budgets) over the COBWeB area comprising Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Western Berkshire (West Berks, Reading and Wokingham Unitary Authorities and the CCGs that correspond to them). The planning is intended to be carried out by the combined CCGs of the COBWeB area. According to the NHS Constitution, the planning should involve the public, either directly or through their representatives; however, so far nothing has been heard of consultation or involvement. We hope that the energetic collaboration between CCGs, NHS providers and Unitary Authorities in Western Berkshire will continue to form the main part of this five-year progress as they move towards jointly creating an Accountable Care System for Western Berkshire, however, crude cost cutting or wider reorganisation which disrupts the progress of Western Berkshire cannot be ruled out. These matters were discussed a couple of times at South Reading Patient Voice meetings in March and April. Our letter to David Smith is available below.

The current reorganisation of the English NHS into "Sustainability and Transformation" areas was one of the topics at the Health and Wellbeing Board meeting held at short notice at Reading's Civic Offices on 14th June. The Western half of Berkshire is joined with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire in a new health planning area known variously as COBWeb, WeBOB or BOB, under the leadership of David Smith, CEO of Oxfordshire CCG. Although Oxford University hospitals will be at the heart of this region, Andy Ciecierski, chair of Western Berkshire's Urgent and Emergency Care Board, was able to reassure public and members present that there was little chance of removal or disruption of the well-performing Cardiac and Stroke emergency services at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Cathy Winfield, Accountable Officer for Western Berkshire CCGs, said that plan for the new area, due to be submitted to NHS England by 30th June, would now only need to select 3-5 priorities for the region over the period to march 2021. There were already developments taking place at the scale of the COBWeB region, such as the recommissioning of the 111 service, which had started before these new regional developments. The Accountable Care System, which was being established for Western Berkshire rather than the larger COBWeB region, would form part of healthcare in the whole COBWeB region. The larger region would work together on IT integration, on the problems of the medical workforce in high cost areas and common support for preventative healthcare. The meeting also discussed the proposed move for most people with learning disability in inpatient accommodation to the community, with discussion of the community support arrangements, but also some uncertainty still as to the funding of community accommodation. The 2016/17 plan for the integration of healthcare and social care, intended to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and to better support discharge and rehabilitation, was approved by the meeting.

Berkshire Health Network is holding a couple of consultations on patient experience and opinion regarding Opthalmology (Eye Health) and End Of Life / Palliative Care. Please respond to these comsultations if you can. Start by clicking on one of the links below:

• Consultation on Opthalmology (Eye Health). This survey is open until 22 May 2016.
• Consultation on End Of Life / Palliative Care . This survey is open until 26 May 2016.

Opthalmology and End Of Life / Palliative Care services are being redesigned in Western Berkshire and the results of these consultations will feed into the redesign and new commissioning.

NHS England has proposed a five year boost to spending on General Practice rising to 2.4 billion per year in 2020/21. The full account of the five year programme spells out changes in workforce, simplifications of inspection and the hospital interface, provision for 100% reimbursement of premises development cost, support for stressed or burned out GPs, extra opening hours and more.