Council and democracy

Mandy Ansell (Acting) Interim Accountable Officer from the Thurrock NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, presented the Members with a summary of the key issues with regards to Primary Care and provided an overview of the steps being taken to address the primary care provision in Tilbury.

Mandy stated that from 30 November 2015 following the closure of the South Essex Emergency Doctors Service (SEEDS), Integrated Care 24 (IC24) will now be providing out of hours service from 1 December 2015. This service will be available at the same location of the Thurrock Community Hospital.

A discussion took place between Members and Officers on the Thursday afternoon closure of some GP surgeries. NHS England confirmed and expected all surgeries to open Thursday afternoons and that IC24 were not contracted to pick up any cover. Alastair McIntyre stated that the expectation was for all practices to open Thursday afternoons and will enforce this.

Councillor Halden commented that the report provided a vague commitment and that the committee was expecting something more coherent. Councillor Halden had concerns that there was not a long term vision.

Councillor B. Rice commented that there was a firm commitment to the change of surgeries in Tilbury and to plan ahead to improve the primary care in Thurrock. Councillor B. Rice thanked Ian Wake for all the analysis work undertaken to get the project to this stage and that future plans were required to move this project forward.

Councillor B. Rice welcomed the SEEDS plan apart from the surgeries still not opening on a Thursday afternoon and that residents welcomed that the location had not changed.

An update on the Locality Based Primary Care Weekend Hubs was given by Mandy Ansell that hubs were up and running and extra capacity was provided if Saturday mornings were fully booked. The Sunday service is proving less popular in some locations but it is very popular in Tilbury. A new IT platform will provide the option for directly bookable appointments and provide the service for patients that can be seen between 4-8 hours without the need to go to A&E from the end of January 2016.

An update on the recruitment of GPs in Thurrock was discussed and the fact that Thurrock has one of the worse levels of under-doctoring which potentially leads to chronic problems.

Councillor Halden stated that the report presented was principally focused on Tilbury and asked the Officer why there was no reference to other wards. Councillor Halden also voiced concern that this report was due to focus on the whole of Thurrock and not specific areas as minuted on the 23 July 2015. Mandy Ansell stated that the report concentrated on Tilbury and Purfleet due to the high needs and the regeneration projects that were on-going in these areas.

Alastair McIntyre commented that the recruitment of GPs was generally difficult not just in Thurrock.

Mandy Ansell confirmed that the four weekend hubs were working well and were being well publicised to residents of Thurrock. An article will be in local papers shortly to advert the extra cover available during the Christmas holiday period.

The Chair agreed with the Members comments and asked CCG to provide an updated report on the whole of Thurrock which had been minuted but not forthcoming to the HOSC committee. It was agreed that Tilbury was a good place to start and that the model used will be implemented across the borough. The Chair asked that a report be brought back to HOSC in March 2016.

RESOLVED

1.         That the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee note the contents of the report.

2.         That the item Primary Care be added to the work programme for March 2016 and that the report is for the whole of Thurrock.