South Reading Patient Voice has written to the leader of the new COBWeB area (Commissioning for Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Western Berkshire) asking for patients and public to be involved in the five year planning which is due to be presented in June 2016 and finalised in July 2016.
The chief executive of Oxfordshire, David Smith, has been appointed by NHS England to lead five-year planning for sustainability (sticking to budgets) and transformation (changing so as to be able to meet or exceed targets and still stick to budgets) over the COBWeB area comprising Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Western Berkshire (West Berks, Reading and Wokingham Unitary Authorities and the CCGs that correspond to them).
The planning is intended to be carried out by the combined CCGs of the COBWeB area. According to the NHS Constitution, the planning should involve the public, either directly or through their representatives; however, so far nothing has been heard of consultation or involvement.
We hope that the energetic collaboration between CCGs, NHS providers and Unitary Authorities in Western Berkshire will continue to form the main part of this five-year progress as they move towards jointly creating an Accountable Care System for Western Berkshire, however, crude cost cutting or wider reorganisation which disrupts the progress of Western Berkshire cannot be ruled out.
These matters were discussed a couple of times at South Reading Patient Voice meetings in March and April.
Our letter to David Smith is available below.