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.

We heard an excellent talk about the "Hospital At Home" program from Kate Summers in March 2015. The intention had been for selected patients to be discharged directly from A&E to their home, or discharged early from their ward to home, with nursing care provided by visiting nurses at home. Despite all the preparation we understand that only one patient ever used the service as planned. The attached document from Fiona Slevin-Brown, head of strategy for the Berkshire West Federation of CCGs sets out how the program has been redirected and some lessons learned. Additional attachments describe how a related service has been operating in the state of Victoria, Australia. There is also a description of the Rapid Response and Treatment program (RRAT) which provides services for patients in care and nursing homes to enable them to have enhanced diagnosis and treatment without entering hospital.

Fiona Slevin-Brown, Head of Strategy for the Berkshire West Federated CCGs, will be talking about "Redesigning Care for the Frail Elderly" at our meeting at 6pm on Wednesday, 24th February 2016, at 94 London Street, RG1 4SJ. Other matters discussed will be news from the CCG and from Patient Participation Groups at GP practices in the South Reading CCG area.

South Reading CCG is getting a 5.7% increase in its programme budgets for 2016/7 as CCG funding allocations are eased towards nationally calculated targets. Other CCGs which are above target may well be getting less than this. The total for 2016/7 is 135.3 million in recurrent allocations.

South Reading CCG's Governing Body will meet in public at 9.30am on Wednesday, 2nd March 2016, in the Museum of English Rural Life on Redlands Road, Reading. To arrange your attendance please register here. There will be an opportunity to ask questions, which must be provided by noon on 1st March, at the end of the meeting. Papers for the meeting should be available five working days before on the South Reading CCG website.

University Health Centre will merge with Whitley VIlla GP practice in April 2016. South Reading GP practice will then merge with them in September 2016. Read the practice newsletter account of this.

From 1 April 2016 South Reading CCG will take on delegated responsibility for commissioning GP services, which are currently co-commissioned with NHS England. It is believed that this will offer the local CCG more flexibility in arranging GP services. We in South Reading could benefit particularly from an active management of GP services as there is a risk, as pointed out in the Primary Care Strategy, that our smaller practices will not have the capacity or even the premises to offer the range of services needed to keep people safe in their homes and out of hospital whenever appropriate. Of course, there is an evident danger of conflict of interest as GPs commission GP services, but with transparency, clear specification and assessment of services, local goodwill and a commitment to patient and public engagement it should be possible to put this to one side.

Social Prescribing will be our main topic when Sarah Morland, of Reading Voluntary Action, tells us about this new development which is being piloted at several South Reading CCG area GP practices. The meeting will start at 6pm on 27th January 2016 at 94, London Street, RG1 4SJ. In addition to the talk on Social Prescribing we will be discussing news from Patient Participation Groups, from our CCG and from Reading Healthwatch. South Reading Patient Voice is open to anyone using a GP practice belonging to South Reading CCG while others my attend as guests by arrangement.

The Government's spending review on 25th November 2015 set out spending plans to 2020 and gave NHS England an initial additional 3.8 billion real increase next year out of a total of 8 billion real increase over the four years to 2020/21. Nurses training bursaries have been replaced by student loans and public health funding will be cut by another 3.8% in real terms to 2020/21 on top of a recent 7% cut. The chief economist of the King's Fund, in a response to the spending review, notes that some of the 8 billion real increase will come from other parts of the health budget as mentioned above, and most of next year's increase will be taken up by existing provider deficits and a change in the NHS pension arrangements which comes in next year and increases contributions from most staff and from NHS employers. In the meantime demand will increase remorselessly as our elderly population increases and the public health measures on which the NHS five year plan was predicated are not carried out by the Government. 22 billion will have to be saved, an unprecedented task. Social care will have an increase of around 10% over this period with councils additionally able to levy a 2% additional council tax to pay for social care. However it is thought that this will still leave a shortfall of several billion pounds for social care. The King's Fund's independent Barker Commission looked to public health and social care funding of 11% of GDP by 2020/21 but it looks as if the outturn will actually be below 8% putting us out of the league of our European peers.

The Governing Body of South Reading CCG meets on Wednesday 2nd December at 9.30 at the Museum of Rural Life, Redlands Road, RG1 5EX The matter to be discussed includes the plan for 4 Berkshire West CCGs, the acute, community/mental-health and ambulance foundation trusts and three local authorities to delegate all their powers to a new integration body to commission integrated healthcare across Berkshire West - for a population of roughly 500,000 people. At first sight the plan seems to offer very little in the way of transparency and public consultation - hopefully more detail will show something more compatible with the slogan "No decision about me without me". If wishing to attend, please notify organisers at southreadingccg@nhs.net by 12 noon on Tuesday, 1st December. Questions for the board must be submitted by 12 noon on Tuesday, 1st December.