Hi Everyone
It’s been over a month since I wrote my first blog and a lot of work has been going on during this time that I’d like to update you on.
You may have seen the CCG in the media recently. This is following the publication of a report about an independent assessment of the CCG. The review, which was commissioned by NHS England, recognises the CCG has a ‘great number of strengths and is in no sense a failing CCG’. However, there were also areas which need to be improved. Although we’re disappointed with some of the findings of the report, we are taking the recommendations in the report seriously and are committed to tackling all the issues raised.
We know we aren’t perfect and will put 100% into supporting our staff and leaders. I feel the report doesn’t fairly reflect the whole CCG or our hard working staff.
We are developing an improvement plan with our staff and other health organisations which will be presented in public to the CCG’s governing body in May. We are already rated a ‘good’ CCG and we are confident that with an improvement plan in place we can become an ‘outstanding’ CCG. We will of course keep you updated on the progress of this.
One piece of good news is that the new GP contract was announced last month. NHS England and the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners Committee have agreed a five-year GP contract from 2019/20. The new contract has some of the biggest contract changes in over a decade and will be key to delivering the ambitions set out in the NHS Long Term Plan through strong general practice services.
The contract is really positive and contains lots of things that we already want to do here in Sheffield and it comes with some funding to help us achieve these aspirations. It’s not without its challenges but it is definitely a positive for general practice in Sheffield. The CCG is busy processing the contract and we’ll share our views on what this means for Sheffield soon.
In other news, you may have seen that we have been asking the public for their feedback, opinions and experiences of urgent care services in Sheffield. We are committed to ensuring people who have an urgent care need can access the right care, in the right place, first time. Since September we’ve been busy engaging people and we’ve also been seeking the views of the wider population, people who use the services, and those from harder to reach communities to really understand what the problems are before we look at possible solutions.
Our online survey is open until Friday 22 March and can be found here. I want to say a big thank you to everyone that has taken the time to fill this in. The information we’ve gathered, along with findings from engagement work and the feedback collected in the original consultation, will help us to develop possible solutions to improve services. We will of course keep you updated on this progress and before any potential changes are made to services, the public will be consulted.
A personal achievement for me this month is getting to grips with my Twitter account and getting my profile up and running! You can find me on @sheffCCGchair, I’m going to be tweeting about the work as Chair of the CCG so if you’re on Twitter do follow me but please bear with me while I get used to it!
Finally, just before I sign off I’d like to remind you that I am always keen to hear from the public and our partner organisations, about anything – as I mentioned above you can contact me on Twitter @sheffCCGchair or email me on sheccg.comms@nhs.net.
I hope you all have a good March, let’s hope the weather gets a bit nicer!
Until next time,
Tim