ESyDoc is a governing committee of NHS Surrey, consisting of eighteen GP practices in south east Surrey covering Caterham, Horley, Reigate, Redhill and Oxted.
Created in October 2007, the role of the committee is to commission health services both in primary and secondary care for its diverse population of nearly 170,000.
Since 2006, the Government has been challenging GPs to take more responsibility for commissioning and shaping services first through Practice Based Commissioning (PBC) and more recently the Coalition Government has implemented clinical commissioning groups (CCG). Both initiatives place primary care professionals including GPs, nurses and practice teams at the heart of decision making in the belief that they are in the best position to translate patient needs into redesigned services that deliver what local people wanted.
The Coalition Government has set out their long-term vision for the future of the NHS in The NHS White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, published in July 2010. The vision builds on the core values and principles of the NHS as a comprehensive service, available to all, free at the point of use, based on need and not ability to pay. It sets out how the Government will:
- put patients at the heart of everything the NHS does;
- focus on continuously improving those things that really matter to patients - the outcome of their healthcare; and
- empower and liberate clinicians to innovate, with the freedom to focus on improving healthcare services
Everyone is invited to comment on the plans during the consultation period and there are a range of meetings, involving ESyDoc, being held during the autumn to discuss how the initiatives can be implemented.
Here in East Surrey, practices have been working together in a formal way since October 2007 and agreed to establish themselves as a legal entity. An elected Management Board meets formally once a month and representatives of all the practices join together six times a year to steer the Management Board and to be updated on their work and next steps. The agenda and supporting papers for meetings are available on this website.
ESyDoc works in collaboration with NHS Surrey (Surrey Primary Care Trust), hospitals providing acute care, community care providers and other healthcare organisations in developing local services. Most importantly it has tried to develop strong links with patients and a Patient Representative is an elected member of the Management Board. ESyDoc will continue to involve patients at every stage. To that end there is a separate section on patient involvement on this website.
ESyDoc Vision
ESyDoc supports the principle of providing high quality services closer to patients' homes while ensuring that the services can demonstrate that they represent the best use of limited resources. ESyDoc’s agreed vision is that the organisation is “committed to the provision of high quality patient services which deliver:
- the right health care
- at the right time
- by the right healthcare professional
- in the right environment
We believe in the NHS and want to help secure its future by shaping services locally that are affordable and responsive to the needs of our community.
Where appropriate we want to see as many services as possible transferred away from the hospital environment and nearer to peoples’ homes.
We want our local hospital to become a centre of excellence.
As a result we believe that public money will be better spent and result in measurable improvements in healthcare for our patients.”
The Management Committee is always looking for innovative approaches to healthcare and would welcome comments and suggestions from clinical colleagues, patients and local residents on any matter relating to local health services. Please send any contributions to the Secretary.
ESyDoc's latest Commissioning Plan is now available. Take a look... Esydoc Commissioning Plan 2009-11