Issue - items at meetings - Annual Report of the Director of Public Health

Report of the Director of Public Health. To be presented by Dr Peter Wilkinson, Consultant in Public Health/Deputy Director of Public Health, Brighton & Hove (cover report attached; copies of the 2011 DPH Annual Report to be circulated under separate cover)

17.1Dr Peter Wilkinson presented the report as Dr Tom Scanlon was unable to attend the meeting. Dr Scanlon had compiled ‘Vital’, the 2011 annual report on public health for Brighton and Hove.  Dr Wilkinson summarised the report contents and answered questions from the committee members.

17.2Councillor Rufus applauded the report and the new layout and style - it provided a new way of looking at a number of important health issues for the city.  This was backed up by other committee members.

17.3In response to a question about the classification system for local GPs, and how this could be used to improve performance, Dr Wilkinson said that it allowed surgeries to compare themselves with practices with a similar patient base rather than with all practices across the city. This allowed more meaningful comparisons to be made.

17.4In response to a query about the report’s intended audience, Dr Wilkinson said that the report was mainly intended for primary care practitioners, practice managers and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The report was intended to be informative and entertaining and also offered GPs potential CPD points.  The report had already been sent to all councillors and to all GP surgeries.

17.5Geraldine Hoban, Chief Operating Officer for the CCG, said that the classification system was a way of holding peers to account. The CCG was also planning to introduce scorecards for surgeries, again comparing like with like, and providing softer information from patients’ experiences. Ms Hoban would be happy to come back and talk to the committee about this at a later date.

17.6Members commented that it might be the case that individual GPs could be the stumbling block for improving care. This might be particularly the case for locums, who did not know the individual patient or their medical history.

17.7There was a discussion around the article on diabetes care. Ms Hoban said that the CCG thought that diabetes should be a clinical priority locally, in order to achieve the results that should be being achieved.

17.8Mr Watkins said that he had not been able to find any reference to Patient Participation Groups (PPG) in the report and would like to see this made more explicit in future reports.

17.9RESOLVED – that the annual report on public health be noted, and that Ms Hoban be invited back to speak on GP peer reviews and patient feedback.