The current reorganisation of the English NHS into "Sustainability and Transformation" areas was one of the topics at the Health and Wellbeing Board meeting held at short notice at Reading's Civic Offices on 14th June. The Western half of Berkshire is joined with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire in a new health planning area known variously as COBWeb, WeBOB or BOB, under the leadership of David Smith, CEO of Oxfordshire CCG.

Berkshire Health Network is holding a couple of consultations on patient experience and opinion regarding Opthalmology (Eye Health) and End Of Life / Palliative Care. Please respond to these comsultations if you can. Start by clicking on one of the links below:

NHS England has proposed a five year boost to spending on General Practice rising to 2.4 billion per year in 2020/21. The full account of the five year programme spells out changes in workforce, simplifications of inspection and the hospital interface, provision for 100% reimbursement of premises development cost, support for stressed or burned out GPs, extra opening hours and more.

The state of Reading's health and wellbeing will be presented by Kim Wilkins of Reading Borough Council's Public Health team along with a look at how the state of our health is assessed and how it is used by our CCG in planning developments in health care. Click here to get started with JSNA = Joint Strategic Needs Assessment for Reading. We will also be receiving news from Patient Participation Groups, from Healthwatch and from our CCG as well as national NHS news of interest to us. CCG area.

Stewart Rowbotham, Director of Wellbeing for Wokingham will be talking about "Redesigning Care for the Frail Elderly" at our meeting at 6pm on Wednesday, 24th February 2016, at 94 London Street, RG1 4SJ. Other matters discussed will be news from the CCG and from Patient Participation Groups at GP practices in the South Reading CCG area.