Agenda and draft minutes

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The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business. Where the item is already included on the agenda, it will appear under that item but new items of urgent business will be dealt with at item 7 .

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A member with a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered must disclose to that meeting the existence and nature of that interest at the commencement of that consideration, or when the interest becomes apparent.

A member with a personal interest in a matter also has a prejudicial interest in that matter if the interest is one which a member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice the member's judgment of the public interest and if this interest affects their financial position or the financial position of a person or body as described in paragraph 8 of the Code of Conduct and/or if it relates to the determining of any approval, consent, licence, permission or registration in relation to them or any person or body described in paragraph 8 of the Code of Conduct

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To consider and comment on proposals by Haringey TPCT to develop services at one of the GP practices at the Laurels Healthy Living Centre as part of the setting up of a GP led Health Centre.

David Lyons, the Head of Primary Care (East) from Haringey TPCT reported that the Laurels practice had been chosen as the location for the GP led Health Centre as it already fulfilled some of the necessary criteria.  In particular, it already had more then 6000 patients on its books.  There was a project group, including all relevant services, that was working together to develop services at the Centre.  The advertising process for a suitable provider for the services at the Centre had already begun and there had been 32 expressions of interest to date.  There has been significant interest from local GP practices as well as some from the independent sector.  

Consultation was currently taking place with local residents and the TPCT was committed to involving them throughout the procurement process.  Meetings had taken place but there had been some administration problems in getting notifications out in good time.  Invitations and questionaires had been sent out to all patients. 

Feedback from questionnaires showed that the top priorities of residents were:

·        Extended hours

·        Extension of diagnostic services

·        Wider range of treatments.

The Panel received the views of local residents present at the meeting, including representatives from the Save St Ann’s Campaign and the Laurels Action Group.  The following issues were raised:

·        Concern was expressed at the possibility of a large impersonal private company gaining the contract.

·        The Laurels was not ideally situated for a centre of this nature as it did not have good public transport links

·        The design of the building was not sympathetic to the local environment

·        People had not been given a reasonable time to respond to the TPCT’s proposals.  Despite the large percentage of local residents that were from black and ethnic minority communities (55%), translated versions of  information that had been circulated had not been made available

·        Privatisation would threaten the quality of services and the relationship between patients and their GP. People preferred the traditional method of GPS running their own services.

·        They did not believe that the TPCT was under a legal obligation to go out to tender.

·        It was felt that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee should designate the change as a substantial variation or development to services and therefore subject to statutory consultation. 

Mr Lyons responded that the TPCT had not yet invited bids to be made.  It was currently in the process of developing the specification.  All that had been dome to date was to invite expressions of interest.  The evaluation of bids would not be made on cost alone.  He hoped that local GP practices would be able to put in high quality bids for the contract.  The TPCT had the chance to weight particular factors in the evaluation of bids and quality of service and awareness of the health needs of the local population were likely to be key criteria.  As the Laurels was opposite St. Ann’s hospital, it was as accessible as it to local residents. 

He accepted that, in hindsight, parts of the consultation could have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To consider any items of business admitted at item 2 above.

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