A consortium of 19 Norwich GP practices has been outlining its priorities as it prepares to start taking on responsibility for health services in the city.
The Norwich Health Commissioning Consortium is a group of GPs which will be shaping health services in the city for 170,000 patients and says Norwich's key priorities will be care for frail and elderly patients, those with mental health problems and how and where community health services are delivered.
Over the next two years the consortium will start to take over the purse strings for paying for health care from NHS Norfolk, which will be scrapped in 2013.
At a Norwich Older People's Forum meeting yesterday, Dr Chris Francis, co-chairman of the consortium and a partner at Bacon Road Medical Centre, pledged to involve patients in desiging care from the start, and said the group would be looking to offer more services closer to people's homes, rather than in hospitals.
He said: 'It's about an imaginative use of all the premises we have in the public sector, for example the city council, county council and mental health trust.'
Dr Francis also reassured members of the forum that the consortium would not be looking to introduce a centralised appointment booking telephone system for all the 19 practices.
He said: 'That's happening in certain parts of the country using NHS Direct, and I'm sure there are efficiencies, but most people value being able to contact their own practices for continuity of care and we have no plans to make any changes to that.'
Members of the forum raised concerns about the capacity for more healthcare to be offered in the community, as well as public transport to help people access this care.
Accountability, personal budgets, more private providers and competition within the NHS were also discussed.
Older person's campaigner Barbara Lockwood, from Mayfield Avenue, Hellesdon, said she was worried about what would happen if the new GP consortia groups ran out of funding in a financial year, and also about the NHS becoming increasingly business-focused.
She said: 'My biggest concern is the cost and the lack of money in the NHS.'
The 19 practices in the consortium are:
Dr Paul Harris's practice, based at Adelaide Street Health Centre
Bacon Road Medical Centre
Castle Partnership (Mile End Road Surgery, Tuckswood Surgery in Hall Road and the Gurney Surgery in Magdalen Street)
Hellesdon Medical Practice
Lawson Road Surgery
Lakenham Surgery, Ninham Street
Magdalen Medical Practice, Lawson Road
Newmarket Road Surgery
Oak Street Medical Practice
Old Palace Medical Practice
Prospect Medical Practice, Aylsham Road
St Stephen's Gate Medical Practice, Wessex Street
East Norwich Medical Partnership, Aslake Close in Sprowston and St William's Way in Thorpe St Andrew
Trinity and Bowthorpe Medical Practice (Trinity Street Surgery and Bowthorpe Health Centre, Wendene)
Wensum Valley Medical Practice (Bates Green Health Centre, West Earlham Health Centre in Earlham West Centre, Adelaide Street Health Centre)
West Pottergate Health Centre, Earlham Road
Woodcock Road Surgery
Yare Valley Medical Practice, Thorpe Road and Rider Haggard Road
UEA Medical Centre, University Drive
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