COUNCILLORS have pledged to establish stronger communication links with the area’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), following concerns about GP service delivery in the borough.

Following "significant problems, where GP practices have given up their contracts, usually after a period of instability" Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council tasked its community, environment and partnerships (CEP) committee with reviewing services.

The motion came after a number of high-profile cases in recent months.

The Gazette has reported how the CGH partnership of surgeries - the largest primary care provider in North Hampshire - has been taken over by American-owned Operose Health because of falling GP numbers, whilst the partners at the Bermuda and Marlowe partnership will not renew their contract when it lapses next year.

At a meeting on January 20, CEP members committed to strengthening communication links with the CCG, with one councillor suggesting quarterly meetings otherwise “very little will get done”, while another felt the committee was in a “superb position” to build on links with residents.

Cllr Kim Taylor, who brought the original motion, said: “Clearly, what we need to be doing is setting up a closer, more regular, set of meetings with the CCG to report on their monitoring of the current situation and of these new partnerships. So really it’s more a question of them needing to come to us with an initial presentation round these issues and suggestions of what they should be, based on lessons learned from all the mistakes in Rooksdown and so on, on what they need to monitor and report back to us, to be able to reassure us that the services are working well, that they are not in danger and action is not needed.”

Cllr Taylor stressed that, without “very regular” contact, the work of the CCG would fail to meet the needs of residents.

She added: “We need to have that kind of meeting with them, as a committee, on a very regular basis, and I would say every three months, every quarter. Because the problem, as we discussed in council, is that unless this is actually very visual and in the public domain, then very little action will get taken and very little will be done about it. And we’re in a situation now where our residents are extremely put out about GP services and have a lot of concerns with them, so we need to be much more robust and regular with our approach.

“I appreciate the pressures the NHS is under at the minute, but this pandemic will finish in the end and we want to make sure we’ve still got local GP services when that happens.”

Echoing the need for transparency with communities, Cllr Jenny Vaux, who has been involved in previous work of the committee in addressing these issues, said: “The biggest area where we felt the borough could contribute to provision of GP services, is our close links to our local populations.

“What we can contribute to support the provision of effective GP services is the local dynamics which the CCG, through Hampshire County Council, have great difficulty in picking up. They also have a duty to engage with their public and patients, and they’re not great at fulfilling that because it's actually quite complicated, and we’re in a superb position to do that.”

Cllr Simon Bound, cabinet member for communities, culture and partnerships suggested that he take forward the committee’s list of questions to the CCG.

The group will then attend the committee’s March meeting, where a way forward in terms of dialogue can be established.