Dr Nigel Minihane, chairman of the Primary Care Body, and Dr Philippa Venn, also of the PCB, gave evidence to the Health, Social Services and Housing Scrutiny panel yesterday as the panel continued its review of plans to redesign the hospital over two sites and greatly increase the amount of care in the community.
The GPs said that the voice of key medical experts had been ‘diluted’ when the Health department began consulting on the project, but that now those leading the work were listening.
Dr Minihane said: ‘Initially the consultations were pretty unwieldy and lots of people were involved. Key players had a diluted voice. But there has been more focus on those key players becoming a main part of the discussions.’
‘We’ve noticed that there has been a high workload for the Primary Care Body. We hope that if we look at what will mainly be care in the community, despite the new hospital, there should be some time set aside so we can participate appropriately in the set-up, not just as it’s planned, but as it’s introduced in the future.’
The panel – vice-chairman Deputy Jackie Hilton, who chaired the hearing in Deputy Kristina Moore’s absence, Deputy James Reed and Senator Sarah Ferguson – had contacted the doctors to get an idea of what GPs thought about the redesign of health care.
Dr Venn added: ‘We have got to the point where people heading the project are starting to listen to us and are starting to understand that they can’t just bring in these services in silos and that the different impacts of these services need to be thought about.
‘We feel more like equal partners in the process.’
