Thame Rejects Health Changes

THAME town hall was packed to capacity on Monday evening, for a public meeting to discuss proposed changes in local health care provision.
Chaired by Olga Senior of the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority, the meeting was part of three consultations on the future shape and size of Primary Care Trusts, Ambulance Trusts and the Strategic Health Authority in Thames Valley.
The TVSHA says that it is: ?.. seeking the views of patients and the public on how many organisations there needs to be in the Thames Valley to ensure the good quality healthcare is available to all and that the consultation is part of a national plan to streamline management within the NHS and bring healthcare decisions closer to patients.?

Currently, the NHS locally is run by one SHA covering Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, with 15 PCTs that decide how the money is spent locally. Thame?s health care provision is overseen by the Vale of Aylesbury Primary Care Trust, within which Thame doctors, Chinnor doctors and Haddenham doctors, all work together. The main proposed change is to reduce the number of PCTs and for them to work within county boundaries.
Across the country, the NHS is looking at ways it can become more efficient by cutting management and bureucracy and redirecting the money saved into patient care, in this case,