Bradford District’s Clinical Commission Group to set out its vision (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford District’s Clinical Commission Group to set out its vision

11:00am Tuesday 7th August 2012 in News

Dr Andy Withers, clinical chairman of Bradford District’s CCG

The largest of the district’s three new clinical commissioning groups holds the first meeting in public of its shadow governing body today.

The Bradford District’s Clinical Commission Group (CCG) meeting takes place at Douglas Mill, Bowling Old Lane, Bradford, from 1.30pm, and will set out its vision, mission and key priorities for the future.

Bradford District CCG, which serves a patient population of 330,115, is one of three CCGs covering the Bradford district, which have been developed as part of the NHS reforms in the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

A profile of health issues the CCG will focus on include smoking and problem alcohol use; increasing levels of mental health problems and high levels of cardio vascular disease and respiratory disease.

The Bradford District CCG’s vision is ‘better health for the people of Bradford’ and key priorities include tackling health inequalities, improving patient safety, improving primary care quality, improving outcomes for people with long-term conditions, transforming urgent and intermediate care and transforming mental health and community services.

Dr Andy Withers, clinical chairman of Bradford District’s CCG, said: “This is a very exciting time for us as a CCG as we’re laying the foundations for how we want to develop and deliver excellent health services to over 330,000 people across Bradford. This is a real opportunity for us to put patients at the heart of everything we do and work with them to make sure the NHS meets the diverse needs of all our communities.

“Our first meeting of the shadow governing body, at which one of our patients will share with us his personal experiences of care, will help set the scene for a new way of commissioning healthcare and creating better health for the people of Bradford.”

The other two CCGs in the district are Bradford City CCG, which serves 118,000 patients, and Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven CCG, which has a patient population of 155,781 and incorporates some practices from North Yorkshire, including Skipton , Grassington and Settle.

From April 2013, primary care trusts (PCTs) will be abolished and CCGs will take over some of their responsibilities. CCGs are different in that they are made up of their member GP practices who establish a governing body to oversee the way they carry out their responsibilities.

As a minimum, the governing body includes GPs, a secondary care specialist, a nurse, two lay members, a chief financial officer and the accountable officer. The CCGs in Bradford, Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven will not be formally established until PCTs are abolished.