Since 2006, the Government has been challenging practices to become involved with Practice Based Commissioning or PBC.  PBC places primary care professionals including GPs, nurses and practice teams at the heart of decision making to commission services for their local population as they are in the best position to translate patient needs into redesigned services that deliver what local people want.  ESyDoc Commissioning Plan 2009/11

Here in East Surrey we have picked up the challenge and in October 2007 the twenty practices in the East Surrey area agreed to establish themselves as a legal entity, the ESyDoc Limited Liability Partnership.  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 LLP works in collaboration with 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 LLP will continue to involve patients at every stage.  To that end there is a separate section on patient involvement on this website.

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.  Current focus is on community mental health services, health coaching, sexual health services, urgent care centres and integrated diagnostic and treatment centres.  

The Management Board is 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. There is a discussion forum where you can contribute to the debate either on one of the topic areas on which the LLP needs help or start your own thread.

There is a lot to be proud of in East Surrey, but much still to do.