Issue - meetings

To consider the briefing by the Primary Care Trust on the development of GP (General Practitioner) consortia. 

The Committee received the briefing (Pages 1 & 3 of the agenda pack) and welcomed Dr Helen Pelentrides who updated the Committee on Haringey’s GP consortium.  The Committee noted that after a series of GP and practice staff meetings since September 2010 it had been agreed that the four GP collaboratives in Haringey would join and apply for the Pathfinder programme, which would provide the training and support necessary for the consortium to achieve fully accountable status from 2013. The consortium’s first Pathfinder bid had been rejected and was resubmitted in February 2011 and the result was expected in April 2011.

In response to the Committee’s concerns and questions the following was noted:

• At present the Consortium was not directly involved in commissioning clinical services. A small team of 3 clinicians were leading and, whilst much of their time was taken up by the project, the majority of GPs were not yet directly involved.
• An estimated £440 million was expected by the Consortium in 2013 for commissioning of services.  Regular meetings between the LA and the NHS were being held to discuss how services would be commissioned.
• No private services had applied to take over the commissioning of any services and all transactions would be open and transparent.
• St Ann’s and Lordship Lane sites as well as the Hornsey Health Centre would be utilised for services.  A Committee Member also recommended that, where possible, spaces in Council buildings should be used.
• Research suggested that a consortia should cover 500,000 residents for it to be viable but a consortia covering 32,000 residents had recently been approved.
• The Consortia would have an obligation to remain within its budget allocation and savings would be realised by implementing better ways of working and more efficient clinical contracts. 

Members of the public in attendance expressed concerns that there would be less public accountability with the GP Consortia and it was noted that the Director of the Consortia was likely to be the future point of contact for the Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

In response to the suggestion that not all GPs wanted the responsibility of commissioning care, Dr Pelentrides accepted this but emphasised that there was 100% commitment by GPs to the Consortia. If local practitioners did not take on the role outside bodies would be brought-in to conduct the commissioning for Haringey.

The Committee requested quarterly updates from the GP Consortia particularly in relation to organisational issues, commissioning contracts and performance. (Action No. 205.1).

RESOLVED to note the update on GP Consortia.