The venerable Washington-based Commonwealth Fund has given the National Health Service high rankings in a study comparing the health-care systems of eleven developed nations, including USA, NZ, Canada, France, Sweden and Germany. The NHS came top overall and top for effective care, safe care, coordinated care, patient-centred care, access despite cost and efficiency. Furthermore, out of 11 only Sweden and New Zealand were cheaper in cost per head. That said the UK came 10th out of 11 on the "Healthy Lives" measure. France was top, with Sweden second and USA last. The three measures that were combined to measure "Healthy Lives" were rate of preventable deaths, infant mortality and healthy life expectancy at age 60. It is thought that the social determinants of health, deprivation and lack of autonomy could be the cause of the UK's poor ranking for "Healthy Lives".

Public Health Reading in conjunction with Berkshire Youth will be running 5 "Let's Get Going" courses in Reading primary schools in the academic year 2014-15 as part of its action on childhood obesity. The courses are suitable for kids of ages 7 to 11 and can involve parents as well as children in learning about healthy food and activity.. The schools will be chosen on the basis of the Public Health childhood measurement programme. This is an advance on a previous year when 3 courses were given and should be welcomed. But given that Reading has nearly 40 primary schools it may be that more will be needed to get to grips with childhood obesity. You can find out more about "Let's Get Going" on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/letsget.going.56 We described last year's trial roll-out to 3 schools here ,

South Reading Clinical Commissioning Group holds its Ammual Meeting on 2nd July 2014.from 1pm to 2.30pm at the Museum of English Rural Life, Craven Road, Reading RG1 5EX. The Annual Report and Accounts has been published and is available at the South Reading CCG website

Macmillan Cancer Support and the Royal Berks NHS Foundation Trust have organised a feedback session for those caring for a friend or family member living with or after cancer. Carers are invited to the sesion to help develop services to support carers. This will take place from 10am-12pm on Wednesday, 25th June, at Earley Crescent Resource Centre, Warbler Drive, Reading RG6 4HB. To attend or to find out more contact Natalie Thomas, Macmillan Well-Being Support Worker on 07799891409 or mailto://hwp-tr.MacmillanwellBeing@nhs.net.

The Governing Body of South Reading CCG met in public on 4th June with Dr Ishak Nadeem in the chair as Dr Elizabeth Johnston was on leave The Governing Body heard reports of progress against several of its targets for 2013/14. Firstlly, the proportion of diabetic patients receiving all 9 recommended care processes in the year was raised to 49% - a big jump if still far short of best practice. Secondly, the number of children having their immunisations in their first year was very close to the recommended 95% which should guarantee collective immunity against epidemics of childhood diseases. Sadly, the actual number was just 8 short of the target, losing our area about 60,000. But the number will be sufficient for effective protection. Thirdly, despite record numbers attending the RBH A&E department, a credible action plan is in place to return to meeting the 4-hour waiting target. Similar arrangements are in place for the diagnostic tests wating time target. The Governing Body also heard about service developments for the coming year, including the new Hospital@Home service, which will start with the capacity to look after up to 10 patients at home across Reading, where last year the patients would have had to have been treated in hospital. Mr Derek Fawcett, Secondary Care Consultant Governing Body member, raised his concerns that the piecemeal commissioning of services didn't allow for the overall strength of the acute providers (principally the Royal Berks Hospital) to be taken into account.

We will be meeting between 6pm and 7:30pm on Wednesday, 25th June 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 the Methods used by the South Reading CCG to monitor patient safety and the quality of treatment at our health providers, given by Debbie Daly, Nurse Director for the four Berkshire West CCGs.. We will also take a look at the CCG;s "plan-on-a-page" for 2014/15, and take news from the CCG and local Practice Participation Groups.

We will be meeting between 6pm and 7:30pm on Wednesday, 25th June 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 the Methods used by the South Reading CCG to monitor patient safety and the quality of treatment at our health providers, given by Debbie Daly, Nurse Director for the four Berkshire West CCGs.. We will also take a look at the CCG;s "plan-on-a-page" for 2014/15, and take news from the CCG and local Practice Participation Groups.

IN an interview on 31st May 2014 in the Daily Telegraph, Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, signalled a change of thinking on centralisation, ahead of a major speech. He said, "The NHS must stop closing cottage-style hospitals and return to treating more patients in their local communities". Mr Stevens warned that British hospitals have become among the worst in western Europe at caring for local populations, because too many services have been stripped out and centralised. He said Britain must learn from countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States, which have pioneered ways of bolstering community care around small hospitals to meet the needs of their populations. A number of other countries have found it possible to run viable local hospitals serving smaller communities than sometimes we think are sustainable in the NHS, And in an earlier speech on 1st April 2014, Simon Stevens said, "Viable local hospitals that dont all have to be huge partly because of different choices about where and how doctors are trained. Mental and physical health, unified"

Thames Valley NHS England has written to the new head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, asking for a lay/patient representative to have a place on the board of NHS England. The text of the letter to Simon Stevens is below: Dear Mr Stevens,. The Patient Partnership Leads of the Strategic Clinical Networks, along with Area team and other colleagues, offer you a very positive welcome to NHS England. We would value your assistance to resolve a concern that we, along with many patients/carers/lay people and our health professional colleagues have expressed over the last 12 months:- There is no Patient/carer/lay person voice/representative on the NHS England Board. We have worked very hard and successfully over the first year of NHS England to develop a strong and loud voice for patients and the public inall our NHS work, as clearly mandated and welcomed. This does not appear, however, to be reflected in the constituency of the NHS England Board. Effective Patient Leaders are currently actively under development - with some local variations in names/titles. In developing this important Patient Group to support all aspects of the new NHS, we believe that this would be a means of identifying individuals to work at aNational level. These details could be sent to the Participation Leads of your Executive Team which could then be the constituency of the Participation Academy currently being developed. From this hub, possibly linking to the developing Citizens Assembly, the interested adult and/or young persons of the public could be selected for the Board. Itis understood this will need proper development, and hope you will agree the value of this positive move to guarantee NHS Englands commitment to the Patient and Public voice being heard at the highest level. Rather than have a long distribution list, we will all be separately forwarding this e-mail on to the Patient Leaders we are working with. We look forward to positively pursuing this proposal with you. Best wishes Steve Steve Candler Steve Candler Senior Network & Domain Manager Thames Valley Strategic Clinical Networks NHS England Jubilee House 5510 John Smith Drive Oxford Business Park South Oxford OX4 2LH

The Governing Body of the South Reading NHS CCG will meet in public from 9.00am to 12.30am on Wednesday, 4th June 2014 at the Museum of English Rural Life in Redlands Road, Reading. Papers on strategy, patient engagement, quality and safety, finance and new services will be presented. The papers will be available at the CCG website from midday on 28th May. There is an opportunity to submit questions for the Governing Body which can relate to any aspect of NHS care funded through the CCG.