NHS SERVICES – Tidbury Green area/cross border

I have been dealing with an elderly resident of Tidbury Green who has been attending the doctors surgery at Hollyoaks Medical Centre, Wythall for over 60 years. This effectively means he is a resident of Solihull MBC and attends a surgery in Redditch and Bromsgrove area. Both are covered by different NHS.

The issue arose when the resident required blood testing for a condition and district nurses were asked to visit. There then became a bit of a disagreement as to who covered this issue.

The issue has been cleared up and I am happy to say the resident is now getting the required service. I have had this response from Dr Chitnis, Chair and Clinical Lead, NHS Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Chair and Clinical Lead NHS Solihull CCG:

‘The NHS is different to local authorities in terms of the responsible population as they are not based on the same geographical areas. Clinical Commissioning Groups hold the budget for the vast majority of NHS services, including community (district) nursing. So in terms of this, community nursing is commissioned/contracted by CCGs.

CCGs are made up of GP member practices and so a patient is part of a CCG not because of the geography they live in, but because of the GP practice they are registered with. In this case the Hollyoaks Wythall practice is part of Redditch and Bromsgrove CCG (whereas the Dickens Heath practice is part of Solihull CCG). And therefore patients registered with the Hollyoaks practice, irrespective of their local authority, get the NHS services commissioned by R&B CCG. So whatever community nursing service the Hollyoaks practice patients in the rest of Wythall get, so should the ones in Tidbury Green. The GP should make clear that their patients are entitled to the same service. The money for those patients has gone to that CCG as a result of them being registered with the Hollyoaks practice.’

This issue has relevance to residents of Tidbury Green who attend surgeries across the local authority boarder.

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Ken Hawkins

Blogging about issues in Blythe Ward (includes Monkspath, Cheswick Green, Dickens Heath and Tidbury Green) and Solihull.