The Chief Executive of NHS Wirral and the Director of Public Health will give a presentation incorporating an update on the Public Health White Paper.

Kathy Doran, Chief Executive NHS Wirral, gave a presentation on the Government’s proposed health reforms and their impact on Wirral. The key points were:

·  Independent NHS Commissioning Board

·  GP commissioning consortia

·  New Public Health Service – Director of Public Health to be a Local Authority and Public Health England appointment

·  Community Services to be separate from PCTs

·  All NHS trusts to become or be part of a foundation trust

·  Local authorities to promote joining up of local NHS services, social care and health improvement

In the presentation she gave details of the establishment of a Community Trust, with a Shadow Board operating from January 2011. There would be three GP Consortia:

·  Wirral GP Commissioning Consortium (27 Practices)

·  Wirral Health Commissioning Consortium (23 practices)

·  Wirral NHS Alliance (6 practices)

There were also currently 6 practices unaligned.

The PCT (NHS Wirral) would be abolished in 2013. By June 2011 PCTs would be reorganised into “clusters”, with Wirral likely to be grouped with Cheshire and Warrington. These clusters would be responsible for managing the transition to 2013.

Fiona Johnstone, Director of Public Health gave a presentation on the strategy for public health as detailed in the White Paper, ‘Healthy Lives, Health People’ which would see a return of public health leadership to local government. The new public health service would be directly accountable to the Secretary of State for Health with a clear mission to:

·  Achieve measurable improvements in public health outcomes; and

·  Provide effective protection from public health threats

It would do this by:

·  Protecting people from infectious disease and biological, chemical and radiological threats;

·  Helping people and families to be able to take care of their own health and wellbeing; and

·  Inspiring challenging and commissioning partners from all sectors.

The Director of Public Health would be jointly appointed by the relevant local authority and Public Health England and employed by the local authority with accountability to locally elected members and through them to the public. She also outlined the activities proposed for the local authority commissioning route. There would be some public health commissioning via the NHS Commissioning Board and some through Public Health England (PHE). In her presentation she also outlined the routes of accountability and gave a summary timetable of the implementation of the proposals which would see PHE take on full responsibility in April 2012 and grant ring-fenced allocations being made to local authorities in April 2013.

Responding to comments from Members Kathy Doran informed the Committee that GPs were already the ones committing resources in the NHS and they had to balance what was right for each of their patients with ensuring that they maintained responsibility for all the patients on their list. The scrutiny role of the Committee on health would continue and additionally a Health and Well Being Board would be established which would have on it representatives from GP Consortia, the Department of Adult Social Services and elected Members amongst others. The GP Consortia would not be strictly geographically grouped as there would be a spread across the Wirral and GP practices in one geographical area could belong to different GP Consortia.

Resolved – That the presentations be noted.