Should councillors be given more say over Stoke-on-trent health services?

As Staffordshire’s NHS prepare to move to an integrated care system, Phil Corrigan says there are concerns the city’s specific health needs could be overlooked by this countywide organisation

ELECTED councillors should have more say about local health services once a major NHS revamp takes place, a committee has urged.

The NHS in Stoke-on-trent and Staffordshire is being moved to an ‘integrated care system’ model, which will see the six existing clinical commissioning groups (CCGS) merged into a single strategic body.

City councillors in Stoke-on-trent have previously raised concerns over the merger, fearing the city’s specific health needs – including those linked to deprivation – could be overlooked by a countywide organisation.

During a meeting of the adults and neighbourhoods scrutiny committee, NHS officials gave councillors assurances that the new model would actually allow services to be more responsive to local needs.

This would be achieved through the establishment of three integrated care partnerships (ICPS), including one for North Staffordshire, as well as the beefing up of the existing primary care networks.

While committee members generally accepted these assurances, they called for councillors to have more representation on the ICPS.

Councillor Chandra Kanneganti, above, who is also a GP, believes elected members can provide the sort of local knowledge which would result in more effective health services.

He said: “At the ICP level we should look at the democratically elected members’ representation, particularly around the design of the pathways.

“I was at the meeting the other day, and 85 per cent of the participants, I didn’t even know who they were.

“Most of them are based in the south. This is where I have a problem.

“If you’re designing new pathways, if you have a representative, such as the chair of this committee, who is an elected member and who knows the real problems on ground level, I think they could contribute a lot.”

Simon Whitehouse, director of Staffordshire’s sustainability and transformation partnership, told the commiteee he agreed with Dr Kanneganti’s points, and said he would welcome greater councillor involvement.

He said: “If there is a commitment now to get involved in that pathway work at all levels, then nobody is going to get turned away from that door. I think that’s really positive.

“If you’re bringing the enthusiasm from both general practice and from councillors so we can genuinely get into the conversation of what does the frailty pathway need to look like in Goldenhill, or Burslem or Cobridge, and what does that mean for local communities, then I think that’s absoutely spot on.”

Last month, GPS across Stoke-on-trent and Staffordshire voted in favour of merging the six CCGS into a single strategic commissioning organisation – a big step towards formalising the area’s integrated care system.

The vote saw 135 out of 147 practices take part, with 84 per cent voting in favour of the merger.