Chair introduced a background summary to the item, informing that this matter had been an item of earlier report to this Committee.

Simon Banks (Chief Officer, Wirral CCG) introduced his report that detailed the proposed revised delivery models for the Community Phlebotomy Service from 22 member GP practices of Primary Care Wirral Federation scheduled to commence on 1 July 2019. The report informed that the Community Phlebotomy Service was designed to support the Healthy Wirral agenda as part of the Wirral Plan 2020, in turn helping Wirral residents to keep as healthy as possible and reduce health inequalities.

Mr Banks apprised the Committee that following ongoing issues and concerns raised by patients, PCW federated practices and other stakeholders regarding the delivery of the service, Wirral Health & Care Commissioning (WH&CC) intervened where the remaining 22 practices had not provided a service in line with requirement.  As a result a revised delivery model had been proposed by PCW Federation and WCFT in January 2019. This had been presented to an extraordinary Primary Care Co-Commissioning Committee on 22 January 2019. The proposed revised model was not approved by the Committee for the following reasons; specification requirements not met, lack of evidence of patient engagement, non-completion of impact assessments to support a significant reduction in provision from a number of locations, demand management concerns in regards to a significant increase in referrals for domiciliary visits not addressed and lastly it did not support equity of access for all patients across Wirral.

Subsequently this resulted in WCFT serving notice to all 22 GP practices, as they had been unable to provide a sufficiently high quality level of service for their patients, in meeting the service specification. These contracts ceased on 30 June 2019.

The report provided details of the revised delivery models for the Community Phlebotomy Service from 1 July 2019, namely:

Practices providing the service independently:

·  Marine Lake Medical Practice

·  Estuary Medical Practice (previously known as TG Medical Centre)

·  Heswall & Pensby Group Practice

·  The Warrens Medical Centre

·  Greasby Group Practice

·  Upton Group Practice

·  Paxton Medical Practice (includes Fender Way Health Centre)

·  Vittoria Medical Centre (K)

·  The Village Medical Centre

·  St Georges Medical Centre

·  The Manor Health Centre

·  Commonfield Road Surgery

Practices collaborating:

·  Riverside Surgery - Sunlight Group Practice will undertake domiciliary visits on their behalf

·  Somerville Medical Centre & Central Park Medical Centre – all drop-in sessions will be undertaken at Central Park Medical Practice. Phlebotomist staffing resources will be shared as and when required.

·  Healthier South Wirral consisting of; Allport Surgery, The Orchard Surgery, Spital Surgery, Eastham Group Practice, Civic Medical Centre and Sunlight Group Practice.  Patients will be able to utilise the appointment and drop-in sessions at all practices within this model. 

Practices sub-contracting with GP Wirral Federation to deliver the service on their behalf:

·  Vittoria Medical Centre (G)

·  Whetstone Medical Centre 

A Member thanked Mr Banks for the summary, noting that phlebotomy was a skilled role an expressed concern that a hybrid role may affect the quality of service and what  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10