The North Somerset Health Overview & Scrutiny Panel (HOSP) discussed the proposal on Thursday morning 27th Aug
HOSP was not considering whether or not to be in favour of the proposal, but whether it would be a significant change, and so need a formal 3-month consultation period.
The report presented to the panel is on the North Somerset website. The minutes will also appear here in a week or two.
Before the panel discussion started there was public participation where the SOS campaign group and others spoke of their opposition to the present proposal and Wrington resident and the Patient Practice Partnership spoke in favour. The Wrington chemist also spoke on inaccuracies in the report and the absence of consultation so far with the chemist's or any other Wrington retail outlet. Chris Born (Chief Executive North Somerset Primary Care Trust)spoke in favour of the proposal and Wrington doctor Dr Patel also spoke in favour. Chris Born said the PCT would start formal consultation in 6 weeks time, if the panel agreed, rather than immediately on 1st September.
The meeting was successful in airing different options from the Wrington Vale Medical Practice proposal and successful in that the panel did not agree with the impact assessment.
The meeting was unsuccessful in having the formal consultation period delayed.
The result of the vote means that the start of the consultation is up to the PCT, & if Chris Born sticks to the 6 weeks which he mentioned in the meeting then the start will be the middle of October. Consultation will then run for 4 months, ie until the middle of February. Another aspect of interest is that the report to HOSP under "11) NHS North Somerset approach to engagement and consultation" states that "Much of the work required for consultation work will need to be undertaken in parallel with other aspects of the project. " This may mean that a planning application for the Pudding Pie site will be made while consultation is taking place.
We will let you know more when the minutes from the meeting are published