Carla Sutton, Senior Contract Manager, NHS England North (Cheshire & Merseyside) introduced the report of the NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) (NHS England) that outlined proposals to provide a fairer, more equitable access for GP services over seven days per week and outside of normal core hours at a large scale in multiple hubs in key locations, to all Wirral residents, away from the main Hospital site at Wirral University Teaching Hospital (WUTH) Arrowe Park, Hospital site, Upton, Wirral.

Ms Sutton informed that the current service provided was not geographically equitable, and that Clinical Commissioning Groups were required to review service provisions and commission routine appointment services at evening and weekends to meet demand, in addition to providing additional investment for improved IT access to patient records.

Martyn Kent, Head of Primary Care Transformation, NHS Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group apprised Members that NHS Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group was developing a proposal to offer a new pilot service to deliver upon this requirement via the two emerging GP Federations on Wirral from early 2017. The pilot process would be used to review the outcomes associated with the service and revise the model to ensure it met the needs of the Wirral population.

Mr Kent also informed that the new pilot service would provide access to GP services at a number of hub sites across Wirral in each of Wirral’s four Parliamentary constituencies. The aim of the service being to improve the experience of patients accessing GP services who sometimes have difficulty now, for example:

a)  Working people

b)  Carers

c)  People with young families

The proposed delivery sites, subject to contract procurement (December 2016) and confirmation thereafter, include:

a)  Civic Medical Centre (Bebington)

b)  Claughton Medical Centre (Claughton/Oxton)

c)  Eastham Group Practice (Eastham)

d)  St Hilary Group Practice (Wallasey)

e)  Marine Lake Medical Practice (West Kirby)

f)  Miriam Medical Centre (Birkenhead)

g)  Parkfield Medical Centre (New Ferry)

h)  Somerville Medical Centre (Wallasey)

Mr Kent explained that the initial funding for the service provided by NHS England of approximately £1 per Wirral patient (£340,000) only allowed a limited service to be piloted initially in 2017/18 i.e. 138 GP appointments per week). However the budget for the service would increase to £3.34 in 2018/19 and £6 per Wirral GP registered patient in 2019/20 (circa £2,000,000) as per NHS Planning and Contracting Guidance 2017-2019.

The report informed that the All Day Health Centre at Arrowe Park had a very low registered practice list (approximately 600 patients, in comparison to the average practice size of 6000 patients). The patients were evenly spread acrossWirral, although some patients had historically followed a GP from the Leasowe area, who worked at the service. However, Members heard that without the funding for the wider Primary Medical Care service, maintaining the registered list was not a viable option as a stand-alone service, and a patient engagement exercise had commenced with those persons on the registered patient list regarding its dispersal.

Resolved – That

1)  the report be noted;

2)  the development of a fair equitable seven day access service for Wirral be supported;

3)  the dispersal of the small registered patient list be noted; and

4)  the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee  receive an updated paper regarding the progress of the new Wirral GP Service from NHS Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group in due course.