Bucks Healthcare Improvements?

Buckinghamshire County Council's Health and Adult Social Care Select Committee has the job of calling to account the health and adult care services in Bucks, regardless of who is responsible for providing them.

At the next meeting on Thursday 26th September, the committee will be hearing the preliminary report from its working group which has been investigating the measures being taken to address the weaknesses at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust highlighted in Sir Bruce Keogh's Review into the Quality of Care & Treatment published on 16th July 2013, and how these fit with the roll-out of the 'Better Healthcare in Bucks' health service reforms.

The meeting is open to the public and there will be a live webcast of proceedings.

Committee chairman Lin Hazell said: "Monitoring the quality of local hospital services is a key part of the select committee's scrutiny role, and the working group was established so that we could look in depth at the conclusions of the Keogh Review and how these could be addressed. We will present our preliminary report at next week's meeting, and will be asking health service managers to respond to its findings.

"I would encourage anyone concerned about the quality of healthcare in Buckinghamshire and the accountability of service providers to attend the meeting or watch the webcast." You can access the webcast here.

The working group plans to meet again in October, to discuss further scrutiny of the Trust and the scope of any further investigations required into its urgent care provision. A final report by the working group will then be agreed and published at the next full committee meeting on Thursday 17th October.