Persistent venous leg ulcers are a troubling and often painful complaint. Treatment with light and honey, as offered by a small-scale local provider, is being offered under the NHS in the South Reading CCG area. Contact your GP surgery to find out if you could benefit from this therapy. This provision carries on a pilot started by the former West Berkshire Primary Care Trust in2012. At least some patients experienced positive results from that so the idea is to continue assessing this form of treatment. Honey has known anti-bacterial action - there is good reason behind this therapy. Treatment will at present be offered for ulcers that have persisted for more then 6 months and have received "conventional treatment".

We will be meeting between 6pm and 7:30pm on Wednesday, 24th May 2013 The main presentation will be on Integrated Care and the services delivered in the community to support it. The work of the CCG Programme Boards will also be outlined. There will be a short report on developments in the CCG, on the "dry-run" CCG board meeting in March, and time for discussion of matters raised at the meeting (or preferably before). There will be elections for vice-chair and outreach officer. Anyone registered with a practice in the South Reading CCG area may attend. If you have not been before please contact Karen Grannum on email address karen.grannum@nhs.net or on telephone 07500 072 720 to give your contact details beforehand.

We will be meeting between 6pm and 7:30pm on Wednesday, 27th March 2013. The main topic for discussion will be how the South Reading Patient Voice should be working with the patient and public community and the CCG.

Reading Community Learning Centre will be offering free courses on English language skills for healthcare users. The first course starts in May. Each course has six sessions of three hours. The courses are being given in Central Reading and at New Directions South in Whitley and at the Warehouse, Cumberland Road, in East Reading. The first session is at the Warehouse, Cumberland Road, on Friday, 3rd May 2013 from 9.30am to 12.30.pm Learners on the course will learn English language skills. English language skills will be introduced using materials relating to a variety of health topics specific to the health needs of the Nepali Community in Reading. A lot of the health information will be delivered by Health professionals. Some of the topics will include:

• how to stay healthy and eat better
• how to register with a GP
• diabetes and heart disease
• importance of regular health checks
• mental health and Alzheimer's disease
• who to contact for different health problems
• men's health and women's health
• how to spot signs & symptoms of Breast Cancer

For more information and bookings please contact your GP surgery or the telephone and email contacts below. Telephone: 0118 959 9009 Email: rclcaisha@btconnect.com

Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust has advertised for a community diabetologist. This is one of many steps that will reshape the NHS towards better care in the community over the coming years.

Reading's Health and Well-being Board meets for the first time on the afternoon of 21st June 2013. The Health and Well-being Board has oversight of all health and social care (both for adults and for children) for Reading although with limited powers of direct action. Members of the public are welcome to attend and may put questions, to be given in advance. If a detailed answer is expected, the question should be posed several weeks ahead of the meeting. To receive full details of the meeting or to put a question send email to Nicky.Simpson@reading.gov.uk.

The NHS Has taken on its new shape as of 1st April 2013 as the Clinical Commissioning Groups take over most procurement of hospital and other secondary level health services. Under the new system South Reading CCG will be responsible for purchasing services for all South Reading patients from community nursing providers and hospitals.

South Reading Patient Voice will meet on Wednesday 24th April at 6pm at the University Health Centre.on Northcourt Avenue. The main presentation will be on Integrated Care and the services delivered in the community to support it. The work of the CCG Programme Boards will also be outlined. There will be a short report on developments in the CCG, on the "dry-run" CCG board meeting in March, and time for discussion of matters raised at the meeting (or preferrably before). There will be elections for vice-chair and outreach officer. Anyone registered with a practice in the South Reading CCG area may attend. If you have not been before please contact Karen Grannum on email address karen.grannum@nhs.net or on telephone 07500 072 720 to give your contact details beforehand.

The new shape of health service commissioning introduced by the Health and Social Care Act is already in place and fully running since 1st April 2013. But the regulations governing commissioning are still the subject of debate. Regulations have already been issued twice by the Government, which maintains that they do no more than codify the existing position. But opponents, including the Royal College of General Practitioners, maintain that the regulations will force every procurement decision made by Clinical Commissiojning Groups to be advertised and go our to format tender, a costly and time-consuming process, which they claim could lead to a rapid shift to private provision of NHS services. The issue will be decided in the House of Lords on 24th April on a motion of Lord (Philip) Hunt, praying against the regulations.

You may have heard that the NHS Direct telephone service is to be replaced by the new 111 service. The 111 service will give advice on health problems and where to seek treatment and will give access to out-of-hours service or ambulance service where necessary. It will run alongside the 999 emergency service which will still give the emergency ambulance service as before. 

While NHS Direct was staffed by nurses and clinicians this is not true of the 111 service. But the service uses a national computer guidance and advice system and all its telephone operators benefit from a six-week training course. Translation to many languages will also be available. 
Some areas have experienced difficulties in operating the new service. But local residents should be reassured by the fact that our 111 service will be operated by the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust. The trust has been operating the service in Hampshire since January of this year. Introduction of the 111 service in Reading is likely to be in the last week of April - but this is not yet confirmed.