Dr Wirin Bhatiani, Chair of the Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) delivered his talk on “Our Vision: Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group” on 17th February 2015 at the University of Bolton. This was the third guest lecture in the series organised on behalf of Centre for Research in Health & Wellbeing of the University of Bolton and the National Forum for Health and Wellbeing.
In his talk, Dr Bhatiani gave a brief history of the formation of the Clinical Commissioning Groups after organisational changes in the NHS in early 2010-11. He briefly spoke about the legacy of the Primary Care Trust and the challenges the new organisation faced when it came into existence. He then went on to highlight the differences in the life expectancy in Bolton comparing it to the national age expectancy as well as variations within the Bolton area. He highlighted the vision of the CCG regarding how it plans to meet the various challenges despite reduction in the resources.
Dr Bhatiani spoke about the ‘care gap’ which people may find themselves when their GP may be unable to handle the care due to complexity whilst it may deemed to be not so severe as to be treated by the secondary care. He said that the CCG had a duty not only to commission care for the population from the appropriate provider(s) but also to audit and maintain the quality of the care provided irrespective of the sector in which the provider was located.
Dr Bhatiani then spoke about the developing partnerships with the several other stakeholders involved in the delivery of care such as Bolton Council, the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and other Manchester Councils. He emphasised the importance of the integration of services so as to provide best possible care within the community whenever and wherever possible.
The lecture was widely attended by several healthcare professionals, University students and staff as well as members from the community. A very lively Q&A session followed the talk in which Dr Bhatiani answered several questions from the audience.
The fourth lecture in the series would be delivered by Mr Stephen Hodgson, Medical Director of the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust on 14 April 2015 at 6 for 6.30 pm at the Deane Suite, University of Bolton. The title of the talk is “Bolton NHS Foundation Trust”.
Those interested in attending this lecture should contact Nicola Dunn (Tel: 01204 903615) to register and for further information.
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