Carers week 2014 takes place in Reading from 9th to 15th June. See the attached programme of events for a range of activities covering a wide spectrum of carers' concerns, including advice on Carers Allowance, picnic by the Thames and introduction to new technology to support carers.

We will be meeting between 6pm and 7:30pm on Wednesday, 28th May 2014 at 6pm at the Communicare office behind Wycliffe Baptist Church, Cemetery Junction (see attached Agenda for directions) . Our main item will be a talk and discussion on Reading's Health and Well-being led by Councillor Graeme Hoskin, present lead Councillor for Health and Wellbeing. There will also be an election for officers. Please see the attached Agenda for other items.

We will be meeting between 6pm and 7:30pm on Wednesday, 28th May 2014 at 6pm at the Communicare office behind Wycliffe Baptist Church, Cemetery Junction (see attached Agenda for directions) . Our main item will be a talk and discussion on Reading's Health and Well-being led by Councillor Graeme Hoskin, present lead Councillor for Health and Wellbeing. There will also be an election for officers. Please see the attached Agenda for other items.

We are informed that the new Chief Executive of the Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will be Jean O'Callaghan. Jean's background is as Director of the South Australian Health Commission and then as chief executive of Bedford Hospital then Dorset County Hospital. We wish her all success in this important post and look forward to hearing her ideas on the development of RBH and its place in our local health services. As Jean has not yet announced her departure from Dorset County Hospital it may be a few months before she takes up her position from Acting Chief Executive Alistair Flowerdew.

Data is a valuable resource in the NHS. Careful study of the statistics of disease and mortality can lead to understanding that saves lives - like the understanding that smoking cigarettes can cause lung cancer. Data relating to hospital episodes has been collected and studied for many years. The new "Care.Data" program is intended to allow data held at GP surgeries to be studied in a similar way. Data is to be anonymised and linked to hospital and other medical data and permission is given for this on a project by project basis. The original program was to have been started this year., but elicited a wave of public protest and was postponed by six months. Concerns centred on mistrust of the anonymisation and data storage, inadequacy of the explanatory information available to the public, concern about possible misuse by private purchasers of the data. .. Now Care.Data supremo Tim Kelsey has announced that the Care.Data project will be piloted at 500 surgeries. Measures to assure the independence of scrutiny of release of anonymised linked data are before Parliament. This is an important project for the NHS so public trust must be retained and regained. The careful roll-out proposed is a good start.

'You can now "Beat The Street" with South Reading Patient Voice's own team. Beat the Street is an initiative of the local CCGs and Reading Borough to promote health through walking. It runs until 4th June. Whether you join our team or another this is what you have to do:

1. Get your plastic "Beat the Streets" ID card from your GP surgery or local library.
2. Register it online at the Reading BeatTheStreet web site choosing your team (we are under category "Other")
3. Inspect the map of "Beat boxes" to find boxes near you
4. Whenever you pass a "Beat box" on a lamppost or similar, apply your card to the indicated area until the box flashes to clock on at the box.
5. When you clock on at two different boxes within an hour points are credited to you and your team, which you can check by logging in to your BeatTheStreet account online
6. See how your activity is building up by checking your points. It should be good for your health too,

National Mental Health Awareness Week takes place from 12th to 16th May 2014. Berkshire Healthcare Trust events can be found here . Together events are an open day on 13th May at 127, Oxford Road from 12pm to 4pm and the Womens' Group Afternoon Tea, at Bridge Hall, Oxford Road, on 14th May from 1.30pm to 3.30pm. See attached poster.

The South Reading CCG proposes to plan Patient Engagement in a more formal way. To this end it has included a plan-on-a-page for Patient Engagement in its current operational plan. It has supported a proposal for a new initiative to be run jointly with SRPV to organise up to 4 large-scale meetings or activities per year to reach a larger number than most current SRPV meetings, at which CCG messages could be communicated and discussed. The attached paper, as passed at the SRPV meeting of 26th March 2014 outlines the new developments. The new activities will be organised by a committee called the Patient Engagement Group (PEG) chaired by the lay member of the Governing Body responsible for Patient Engagement (currently Christopher Mott). The Patient Engagement Group has met once. It has discussed its terms of reference and proposed a large-scale meeting during the day-time on Wednesday, 24th September 2014, to cover childrens' health and fitness matters. Perhaps the most signficant change for SRPV is the increased emphasis on engagement via GP practice Patient Participation Groups.

We will be meeting between 6pm and 7:30pm on Wednesday, 30th April 2014 at 6pm at the Communicare office behind Wycliffe Baptist Church, Cemetery Junction (see attached Agenda for directions) . Our main item will be a discussion on the Changing GP Appointment System led by Graham Brown, Pratice Manager and South Reading CCG Governing Body Member.

We will be meeting between 6pm and 7:30pm on Wednesday, 30th April 2014 at 6pm at the Communicare office behind Wycliffe Baptist Church, Cemetery Junction (see attached Agenda for directions) . Our main item will be a discussion on the Changing GP Appointment System led by Graham Brown, Pratice Manager and South Reading CCG Governing Body Member.