Crucial decisions about the future of the NHS in Dorset are being taken right now. Dorset CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) is a body of local GPs who’ve recently been given the power to decide on the shape of the NHS in Dorset and who runs its services.
The best people to ensure that these protections are written in stone into the constitution by Dorset CCG are people like you who live in its catchment area and not lawyers or health service experts. Local meetings are being organised via 38 Degrees
Now is the time to try to influence them to protect our NHS and not open the floodgates to privatisation.
The following meeting is being held in Bournemouth:
Thursday 1st November 2012 – 8pm to 10pm
Flirt café, 21 The Triangle, Bournemouth, Dorset BH2 5RG (google map)
We need to use local people power to ensure Dorset CCG reflects what local people want and care about. We can influence how they are set up, how they listen to the public and what they do with that info. Come and help ensure local commissioning isn’t privatised, is patient-focussed and listens to the public.
If you intend to go along, please confirm your attendance on the 38 Degrees website
Click here to download the 38 Degrees pdf Clinical Commissioning Groups: Protecting our NHS together
What’s a Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)?
CCGs now have huge power and responsibility over our NHS. Every GP surgery must be a member of a CCG. CCGs are groups of GPs that will make the most important decisions about the health service in your area, such as whether to privatise services. They will decide who will provide the services and will enter into contracts with providers. CCGs could choose to enter into contracts with private companies to achieve this.
On the governing body of a CCG, groups will have, in addition to GPs, a least one registered nurse and a doctor who is a secondary care specialist.
CCGs will formally start work in April 2013, but many are up and running in an early form now.
What do you mean by a CCG constitution?
A CCG must have a constitution to guide them in the decisions they make. A CCG constitution is important in shaping the way that the new health plans are implemented. 38 Degrees have worked with lawyers to produce sample wording which a CCG can adopt into their constitution. Lawyers Stephen Cragg and Rebecca Haynes have drafted content for a CCG constitution which in their view satisfies the legal requirements of the Health and Social Care Act, while also committing to protecting our NHS.
What are the lawyers suggesting a CCG should adopt into their constitution?
There are a number of areas in which variations can be made into a CCG constitution. Lawyers have reviewed all these sections of the constitutions and have suggested wording for protecting our NHS. The wording suggested allows CCGs to introduce ethical and moral considerations into commissioning decisions, as well as purely financial criteria, which should help stop the privatisation of services!
Kevin Smith