Surgeries to collaborate in new proposed healthcare vision

Healthcare bosses will encourage GP surgeries to work in groups and are '˜very optimistic' that two surgeries in Littlehampton will run a medical facility at the Morrisons site in Wick.
Dr Tim Kimber is a partner at The Park Surgery in Littlehampton and is part of the clinical commissioning groupDr Tim Kimber is a partner at The Park Surgery in Littlehampton and is part of the clinical commissioning group
Dr Tim Kimber is a partner at The Park Surgery in Littlehampton and is part of the clinical commissioning group

The news came from Dr Tim Kimber, partner at The Park Surgery in Littlehampton, who is also heavily involved with Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which oversees healthcare in the area.

He said that the CCG was waiting for a business appraisal to be completed on the Enterprise Hub by Morrisons in Hawthorn Road, Wick, which would house the facility.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Dr Kimber added that it would be existing doctors that would run it as opposed to a private provider, but did not give a date for when work would begin. The CCG had previously come under fire from Littlehampton town councillors for the delay in starting work on the project.

He also outlined the commissioning group’s provisional plans for healthcare across coastal West Sussex.

This included the introduction of GP quality contracts, which asks practices to work over their existing contracts.

Under the new plans, practices will get into groups to cover areas containing 30,000 patients so they can provide extra services like evening and weekend GP cover. He added that in each grouping at least one surgery would take new patients.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Dr Kimber said: “The NHS has made it clear that the future of primary care is not to carry on as we are.

“It will not be financially viable to work by yourself and not collaborate.”

A CCG meeting to discuss GP services on October 25 was cancelled with no explanation, prompting anger from Littlehampton’s Labour party. In response, it started consulting with the public on its own healthcare vision which it plans to present to the CCG.

In response, Dr Kimber said there was a lot of patient involvement in the CCG but ‘maybe that needs a stronger voice’.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The problem is that the agenda of the politicians may not be the same agenda as the public. I believe that there is still too much emphasis being placed on Littlehampton losing a hospital. It was badly managed by health authorities at the time and we are in a completely different situation now than we were 10 years ago.”

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1) Make our website your homepage

2) Like our Facebook page

3) Follow us on Twitter

4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

Always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.