Historic first meeting of new group running NHS in West Sussex

The Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) will be in charge of planning and buying the majority of health services from April 1, when the Government’s controversial NHS reforms come into force.

The CCG, lead by local GPs and clinicians, will take over from the West Sussex Primary Care Trust (PCT), which will be abolished on March 31.

The Coastal West Sussex CCG covers Adur, Arun, Bognor Regis, Chanctonbury, Chichester, and Worthing – and covers a total of 56 GP practices with a registered population of 482,100 people.

Next Wednesday’s (January 9) meeting, at the Assembly Room in North Street, Chichester, at 6.45pm, will give people the opportunity to find out more about the organisation and its work.

For more than a year it has been operating as a “shadow” body, alongside the PCT, with major input into decisions taken by the trust, including the scrapping of plans to rebuild Littlehampton Hospital.

New facilities to replace services which would have been provided at the hospital will be among the early priorities of the CCG, for which Littlehampton GP Dr Tim Kimber is the clinical director.

A spokeswoman for the CCG said the inaugural meeting would be an opportunity for residents to find out more about the clinical commissioning group, its current priorities, and to hold the new organisation to account for the work it was doing.

“The CCG is keen for members of the public to attend and is working to make the agenda as interactive as possible, however if you would like to formally submit questions in writing please do so before the meeting,” she added.

Questions can be sent to Sarah Ellett, Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group, by post to Sarah Ellett, Coastal West Sussex CCG, 1 The Causeway, Goring by Sea, Worthing, West Sussex, BN12 6BT; or by e-mail, to [email protected]