Agenda item

Michelle Armstrong, Chief Officer and Dr Simon de Vial Chair of the Bury GP Federation  gave a presentation explaining what the Federation was and the services it provided.

It was explained that the GP Federation was a company Limited by shares which was incorporated in November 2103. There were originally 26 GP practice members who jointly invested £250 000 to establish the federation and a further 4 had expressed an interest in joining which if successful would mean that 30 out of the 33 practices across Bury would be members.

It was explained that the Federation had a shared ethos and core beliefs which are aimed to provide an equitable standard of healthcare for all users across Bury.

The accountability of the Federation was set out and it was explained that when bidding for a contract there were clear guidelines in relation to any conflicts of interest and the requirement for all members to declare these interests upon becoming members this was to ensure that no conflicts arose.

It was also explained that each GP Practice still held their contract with NHS England with regards to the provision of GP services

Michelle explained that the GP Federation had been commissioned to work with the Radcliffe GP practices to help set up and operate the Radcliffe Demonstrator Pilot which provides extended access to GP surgeries 7 days a week from 8am to 8pm on weekdays and 8am to 6pm on weekends. The extra appointments available would provide an additional 19, 500 appointments a year. The project had been successful during stage one of its implementation and was now moving onto the next stage which would incorporate other services such as social care.

Work had also been carried out to assist with the winter pressures that GP surgeries were under during the winter season and had seen surgeries providing extra hours to assist with this. The scheme was due to end on 31 March and had been well received.

It was reported that the Federation had recently submitted a bid to the Prime Minister's Challenge Fund and if successful this would see extended services provided on a wider scale across the borough.

Members of the committee were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised:-

• Councillor Simpson stated that she liked the idea of the organisation and asked what would happen to the profits.

It was explained that the membership was practised based and not individuals. The plan aims to pay back the initial investment to all partners after 10 years and any profits made would be shared back to the member practices.

• Councillor Simpson also asked what would happen to the practices that had opted out of the federation and would their patients be excluded?

It was explained that the practices that hadn't joined would always have the option of becoming members if they wished and the patients within those practices would not be excluded. The services that the federation was looking to provide would be available across the borough.

• Councillor Fitzwalter asked whether the Federation would be assisting its member practices to negotiate better contracts with NHS England?

It was explained that the practices' contracts would not be something that the Federation would get involved with. There was the benefit of having pooled resources which could be both staff and skills.

• Councillor Fitzwalter also asked how patients would hold the GP Federation accountable.

Michelle reported that patients are consulted and have the options of complaining directly to their practice if need be. There are also other channels available to hold providers to account. Michelle also explained that she had been employed by the Clinical Commissioning Group to help establish the Patients’ Cabinet in Bury and the GP federation worked with the Cabinet to look at service provision.

• Councillor Walker asked whether this was just another tier of administration and asked whether the GP federation would place any restrictions on patients moving from one practice to another.

Michelle explained that patients would always have the right to move to an alternative practice if that was what they wanted to do.

• Councillor O’Hanlon referred to the fact that the majority of Bury’s GP practices were members of the Federation and asked whether this was something that could be used to their advantage when looking at suppliers etc.

Councillor O’Hanlon also stated that not all practices were as accessible as others, some didn’t have internet access for appointments and only a few had the facilities to send a text reminder, what was the plan around this?

Michelle explained that if the bid was successful, the Prime Ministers Challenge Fund would help with technology to bring practices up to date and this would be something that was done with assistance from patients helping to build the services around what they want.

• Councillor Stella Smith explained that there were a lot of questions around transparency and accountability and asked whether there was a code of practice that the Federation members signed up to.

Michelle reported that there was requirement for all members to complete a declarations of interests form and a code of practice that all members were expected to adhere to. It was also explained a member cannot be on the Board of the federation if they are a on the Clinical Commissioning Group Board. Michelle also suggested that Health Scrutiny Members be invited to attend a future Governance meeting if the Federation.

It was agreed

That Michelle Armstrong and Dr de Vial be thanked for their presentation.