On 2 September 2015 the Brent CCG held what it hoped would be its Annual General Meeting for 2014/2015. Only it wasn’t. As everyone who has belonged to an organisation knows, be it the mighty National Trust or a humble residents’ association, when you have an AGM you have to follow your constitution.
Unfortunately the CCG did not do this in spite of warnings from BPV. We had to point out at the AGM that the CCG broke its own constitution in three non-trivial ways. The meeting had not been advertised in the local press; no report was presented on consultations carried out in the year concerned; and finally the one third quorum (minimum number) of the 66 GP practices who make up the CCG was not present. As far as we could see, not a single GP practice was represented other than by the 7 GP members of the CCG Governing Body.
BPV asked the CCG to consider their position, failing which we would complain to NHS England. We are pleased to say that the CCG has agreed to hold a re-run AGM on 14 October 2015. We are assured that it will be properly publicised, include a statutory participation duties report and that everything possible will be done to ensure it is quorate. The time of day and place are to be confirmed. When they are we will publicise them on this website.
Incidentally the non-AGM on 2 September was attended by several BPV members and the Leader of Brent Council. It proved to be quite useful in supplying information, mostly in written answers to questions submitted in advance by BPV members.
We learned that over £700,000 was spent on the ambitious proposed new community musculo-skeletal (MSK) and gynaecology services procurements that the CCG decided to abandon in closed session not open to the public. The future of MSK service initiatives is now to be limited to physiotherapy and some spinal conditions. Expenditure on acute hospital in-patient treatment is exceeding expectations. This, of course, has implications for the Shaping a Healthier Future strategy.
Peter Latham and Robin Sharp 9th September 2015