Our local 111 urgent care and advice telephone service is being recommissioned. You can help shape the future service by taking part in a consultation meeting on 13th September from 9.00am to 1.00pm at the Holiday Inn, Basingstoke Road, Reading, RG2 0SL. At the consultation meeting the preferred provider of the new service - Care UK - will present its vision and take feedback and input from the meeting attendees. Care UK is one of the UK's largest private providers of health care services. They operate 12 contracts for 111 services in places such as Hillingdon, Croydon, Gloucester and Swindon, Kingston and Richmond, Lincolnshire etc. To attend please email joe.winstanley@nhs.net or call 0118 982 2803 to reserve a place.

The NHS is now setting out its plans for the next five years when spending increases will be well below demand. In 44 Sustainability and Transformation Plan "footprints" (areas) CCGs and NHS providers are formulating plans to cope with the stress to come. (We are in the Western Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire STP area known as BOB/WeBOB/COBWeB). NHS England has ruled that the current draft plans must not be shared with the public as considerable resistance is expected, although they will have been shown to members of the Reading Health and Wellbeing Board in private and confidential session, so Reading Healthwatch and leading councillors will have seen draft plans. (Consulting with representatives of the public is sufficient to satisfy the NHS constitution.) We are told that there will be "consultation" when the final plans are published but as final sign-off is predicted for the end of October there may not be much time for discussion or opportunity for change. The BBC reported early news on these plans under the headline "NHS cuts planned across England" after an investigation funded by campaigning organisation 38 degrees produced details of planned ward closures, A&E closures, hospital downgrades and service transfers from sample areas.

We will be discussing patient engagement in the NHS with the new lay member of the South Reading CCG Governing Body, Wendy Bower and Nikki Malin, in charge of comms support for Berkshire West CCGs. The meeting is from 6.00pm to 7.45 pm on Wednesday, 20th July 2016, at the Reading Community Learning Centre, 94, London Street, RG1 4SJ. There will also be news from PPGs and from the CCG.

Reading Borough Council's Health and Wellbeing Board - which has a remit to bring together the local health and social care economy - is holding an extra meeting at short notice at 6pm on Tuesday, 14th June 2016 in Committee Rooms 4A and 4B at the Civic Offices. The meeting appears to be to review plans which are due to be finalised before the next planned meeting. The final plan for the integrated working of health and social care - the Better Care Fund plan will be reviewed. Plans to move care of people with learning disabilities from hospitals to the community, known as "Transforming Care Plans" will also be reviewed. But the urgent novelty is a report on the development of the draft plan for the new regional "Sustainability and Transformation" unit - known variously as BOB, WeBOB and COBWeB. The region unites Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Western Berkshire and is under the leadership of David Smith, the CEO of the Oxfordshire CCG. Draft five-year plans which should show trusts rapidly returning to financial sustainability and to meeting their targets are due to be lodged with NHS England by 30th June. The responsibilities at the new regional level are likely to cover workforce changes in primary care, IT developments in support and the re-organisation of urgent care and A&E departments where a national programme is under the leadership of Professor Keith Willett of Oxford.

By withdrawing its offer to sell land at 17, Craven Road the Royal Berks Hospital Trust has stopped a project to build a multi-practice, high-facility GP medical centre in south-east Reading. The primary care strategy for South Reading CCG area (most of Reading south of the Thames) envisages collaborations and mergers between GP practices to meet increased demand and patient expectations for services and access. Patients can benefit when doctors specialise and share the responsibilities of running a practice. And patients could use a broader range of services out of hospital. Some of our small practices have been rated "inadequate" by the Care Quallity Commission and put into special measures. Working together with other practices could help to raise standards. Three local practices have been working together since the Royal Berkshire Hospital offered to sell land on the east side of Craven Road in 2011 to develop the plans for a multi-practice GP medical centre. They are believed to be Pembroke Surgery, London Street Surgery and Kennet and Christchurch Surgery. Reputedly, over 100.000 pounds was spent by NHS England (then responsible for GP primary care) on a feasibility study for the new centre. Full architectural plans have been drawn up and granted planning permission recently by Reading Borough Council. But now the project is halted because the hospital trust has withdrawn its offer to sell while it reassesses its options. The four CCGs of Western Berkshire are jointly taking responsibility for GP primary care in their area now. And they provide the bulk of income for the hospital. So can the various parties, and perhaps representatives of the public, not get together with an open mind and a flexible approach and sort this out? Members of South Reading Patient Voice heard a description of the medical centre project and its rationale from Dr Gerard d'Cruz of Pembroke Surgery in March 2016. But apart from that patients are standing on the sidelines wondering exactly what is being proposed and what will happen when.

There will be a discussion about developments in primary care. The set of questions posed as starters is: 

1. Where are we with the new workforce in GP surgeries?
2. What will the new alliances of practices be doing differently?
3. There are practices with closed lists in South Reading CCG area - will we have sufficient primary care capacity?
4. Cancer wait targets are being missed at RBH. What are the effects of this? Can this be put right?
5. What can be done about rising A&E attendances AND admissions?
6. Can we do more for carers at GP surgeries?
7. NHS England is proposing better incident reporting at GP surgeries. How will that work?
8. How well are we doing as regards outcomes? (See attached document taken from the NHS Choices web site.)

There will also be reports from Patient Participation Groups and from recent healthcare planning and consultation meetings held in public. Patients registered with a GP practice in the South Reading CCG area are welcome to attend.

On Tuesday 14th June from 2pm to 4pm at St Laurence's Church, Friar Street, the two Reading CCGs will be laying out changes planned for GP services and for services for older people and will answer your questions on these topics and on other major changes coming in the local NHS. This is a consultation meeting covering major changes to come in our local health and social care. Don't miss your chance to hear about them and to provide you views on changes to GP services, to the care of older people and on other major changes to come. To attend book your place using this link or telephone 01189 822 709. See the poster for this event .

If you have observed or experienced harm from NHS medical treatment you have many ways of making sure that your experience doesn't go unrecorded. You can report a formal complaint, an informal complaint, or log your experience anonymously and quickly. Or you may wish to compliment the provider of your treatment. To log your experience of harm or risk anonymously and quickly click here for the National Patient Safety Agency Reporting Page. To find out about making a complaint or to get help with making a complaint or understanding what has happened contact Reading Healthwatch on 0118 937 2295 or by email at info@readinghealthwatch.co.uk. For GP surgeries, dentists, opticians, complaints or compliments should be made to the Practice Manager at the practice - see the NHS Choices web site where you can search for local services. You can also record informal complaints or compliments on the web pages for the particular provider that you received treatment from. For the Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, complaints, compliments and problems to be resolved should be addressed to the PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) at the Hospital: see the Royal Berks PALS web pages. Complaints and compliments can also be logged with Patient Opinion whose services are retained by the Royal Berkshire Hospital on their page for the Royal Berkshire Hospital or with NHS Choices on their page for the Royal Berkshire Hospital. For Prospect Park Hospital and the community hospital at Newbury complaints and compliments should go to 0118 960 5027 or BHT@berkshire.nhs.uk and reviews can be posted at the NHS Choices site. For District Nurses,surses, Physiotherapists, Podiatrists apecialist Community Nurses and Community Matrons, Physiotherapists, Podiatrists and Occupational Therapists working for Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust you can contact their PALS office BHT@berkshire.nhs.uk or phone them at 0118 960 5027. If these actions do not satisfy, then contact the South Reading CCG at South Reading CCG complaints and compliments for complaints and compliments about any NHS-funded services if you are registered with a GP or live within the South Reading CCG area. Lastly, if still unsatisfied you can take your complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman.

Reading Stroke Support Group welcome new members from the Reading area. They offer a range of activities including speakers, social support, outings, meals and exercise. The group meets from 10.00 to 12.00 on the first and third Thursday of every month.

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.