Blackburn with Darwen GPs have met to begin shaping the constitution of their commissioning consortium.
The majority of the borough’s GPs took part in a planning meeting at Witton City Learning Centre to discuss how a ‘clinical senate’ should be formed and agree the roles and responsibilities of the six GPs elected to serve on the executive committee.
Following discussion about whether nominations to the senate should be based on the number of patients belonging to a practice – meaning larger practices would have two or more representatives on the senate – the majority of those who attended agreed that each practice should be represented by a single GP.
During discussions, led by chair Dr Chris Clayton, GPs also agreed:
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The senate will be set up as soon as possible and will meet quarterly
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GPs (or a nominated deputy) will be required to attend three out of four senate meetings
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Members of the executive committee will serve for three years before re-election and may serve consecutive terms. To ensure continuity during the early years, it was suggested the first six committee members should serve either two, three or four years so that all six do not come up for re-election at the same time.
GPs highlighted positive outcomes for patients, managing demand and expectations, equity of care and a valued workforce during discussions about vision and values.
During the meeting, GPs also discussed schemes of delegation between the senate and executive committee, how to handle sanctions and expulsion from the consortium and the voting process. Feedback from all the group sessions will now be collated and reported back at a future meeting.
