Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Arculus and Fower.  Councillors Peach and Sandford were in attendance as substitutes.

At this point Members must declare whether they have an interest, whether personal or prejudicial, in any of the items on the agenda. Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

Councillor Burton declared a personal interest as he was a registered patient at the Alma Road Practice.

Councillor Sandford asked whether Dr Mistry had any financial interests in the process as he was a doctor at a surgery in the local area who could benefit if the Alma Road Primary Care Centre closed.  Dr Mistry responded by saying that he had no direct financial interest in any decision made to close Alma Road as patients could register with any GP practice in the City.  He was in attendance this evening as the lead advisor to NHS Peterborough on this issue.

Further to the last meeting, the report presented an updated consultation document on the future of the Alma Road Primary Care Centre.

The Chairman made a statement reminding members that whilst the issue was very contentious the role of the Commission was to offer effective scrutiny and challenge to the consultation document.  Members needed to confine themselves to questions of fact and explanation as to how services could be delivered in the future in a way which was both constructive and courteous to all attending the meeting.

Paul Whiteside, Interim Director of Strategic Change at NHS Peterborough, advised that the consultation document had been changed to take on board the views made by the Commission at the last meeting.  It particularly made more clear the benefits and disbenefits of the Alma Road Centre and also updated the figures in relation to the number of users of the Centre; however it needed to be remembered that the other surgeries in the area had over 50,000 registered patients.  A review had taken place on the premises of other GP practices in the area and it was found that there was a varied mix in the condition of the premises.  NHS Peterborough now proposed to extend the consultation process so the Commission could consider this issue again at the meeting on 13 September.

Questions and observations were made around the following issues:

• Councillor Peach advised that he was concerned at the events which had followed the Commission’s last meeting, particularly as the PCT did not want to meet with the Commission again following that meeting.  The Scrutiny Manager informed the Commission that the PCT had not tried to avoid attending another meeting but due to the logistics of trying to arrange another meeting within the consultation timescale it had been proposed to send the revised consultation document to Commission members outside of the meeting, however now the consultation period was due to be extended it had now been possible to hold another meeting.
• Why was the information requested on the other surgeries not provided as there was concern that the document still contained inaccuracies?  Mr Whitehouse asked for clarification as to what inaccuracies remained in the document.  The distances of the other surgeries to the City Care Centre had now been included and had been calculated on an NHS system which measured as the crow flies.
• What were the costs per patient of the Alma Road Centre?  The Alma Road contract was let under a different system and could not be compared with other GP practices. 
• The consultation document stated that all of the practices which were close to Alma Road were PMS practices which would be very difficult to terminate without cause, did that mean that Alma Road would be easier to close so that was why that option had been put forward?  The rationale for the proposal was that there was already sufficient GP provision close to the Centre which provided a very large number of similar services.  The consultation was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.