Representation

Lee Pennington and Chris Shaw attended the Primary Care Group meeting at Marriss House, Birkenhead on Tuesday 29th October. Below is the feedback from the meeting:

Key Points

"GPs, dentistry and pharmacology are facing significant pressures on resources and finances. As community reps we are investigating how these pressures will affect patient care on Wirral. As these become clear we will report on these in the new year.

There is significant funding shortfall playing out in Wirral and as a result all service delivery units and PCs made the decision to not undertake certain work streams which are not funded appropriately. We can't provide details on specifics but as info become extant we will report on changes to patient care.

We have been investigating the situation around additional ARRS roles in Wirral and seeking to make sure that the opportunity is taken up by PCGs. There are current issues around the realities of roles being managed and supervised by CWP rather than PCG.

Adult ADHD/neurodiversity pathway remains closed and has been for 3.5 years. We are working in the group to arrange reps to attend and talk us through the plans to reopen the pathway."

What is Important?

"All of the above will directly impact patient care. ADHD is increasing and the closed pathway is having a direct knock on impact to the third sector, both on individuals and third sector providers.

On the ARRS roles, unless the situation resolves itself Wirral potentially could lose the opportunity, having a direct negative impact on the sector of these potentially very useful roles.

We regularly encourage the group to make use of COP and attend meetings, which is taking place. This enables leaders to talk through reforms in ways that communicate the situation to the sector and residents of Wirral.

As co-chairs, we are noticing that we are increasingly being accepted and possess credibility in conversations, as we gain experience.

We attend monthly pre-meetings with commissioners to talk through agenda items."