Issue - meetings

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, Paragraph 29 of the Council’s Constitution.

The Chair informed the Board that a request had been received from Mr Alan Morton, Chair of the NCL NHS Watch, to put forward some issues in relation to item 10 of the agenda pack, proposed merger of CCG’s within North Central London. The Chair advised the Board that in accepting this request that it be noted that the CCG governing bodies within North Central London were considering these proposals and the Board was being asked to note and discuss this update in its role as partners in the community.

Mr Morton was invited by the Chair to put forward his representations to the Board. Mr Morton introduced the Board to his representations as set out in the document titled ‘NCL NHS Watch’, which was circulated to the Board at the meeting. Mr Morton highlighted concerns around governance and privatisation as a result of the proposed merger of CCG’s within North Central London.

Although Mr Morton welcomed the NLP plans around prevention work and new screening, he informed the Board that there was insufficient detail on how those plans were to be actioned, and that there had been a small amount of public consultation or engagement.

Mr Morton mentioned that the NLP’s budget deficit was about £200 million a year of a £2.1 billion a year budget, which amounted to about a 10% a year deficit. Mr Morton stressed that the deficit was not the fault of the North London Partners (NLP) because the main reason for the deficit was due to deliberate government underfunding. Mr Morton was concerned that the deficit would put pressure on the NLP and result in the NLP selling assets to fund its deficit. Additionally, Mr Morton raised concerns regarding cuts in services due to the deficit.

In relation to governance, Mr Morton wanted to know how residents, staff and councillors would be involved in decisions in health care. He pointed out that there would be inadequate representation of the local authority at the Governing Body of the NCL CCG as only one local Councillor from North Central London would be able to attend the Governing Body Committee that would meet four times a year and that Councillor would not have a vote. He further added that plans were unclear in relation to the Health and Wellbeing Board and Haringey’s CCG. Mr Morton informed the Board that despite the advice in the equality impact assessment of the Proposed Merger of NCL CCGs report; the rationale, process, timetable and expected outcomes for the merger was not clearly explained. Mr Morton further explained the long-term implications of the proposed merger, which included privatisation of services and a system of financial cost based on ability to pay. Mr Morton urged the Board to ask the NLP the difficult questions he had put forward in his representations.

The Chair invited officers to respond to the representations.

Tony Hoolaghan, Haringey CCG - Chief Operating Officer, thanked Mr Morton for his representations. In response to the representations, the Chief Operating  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68