Our next meeting will be at 6pm on Wednesday, 30th November 2016, when we will discuss the impact of the Five Year Transformation Plan on Reading. The meeting will be at 94, London Street, Reading RG1 4SJ. We will also discuss latest news from Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) at member surgeries and news from our CCG, Healthwatch and other local organisations involved in health and wellbeing.

Reading Borough has published a draft of its Second Health and Wellbeing Strategy covering 2017-2020 and is consulting residents on the strategy. The consultation closes on 11th December 2016. The strategy consists of 7 priorities drawn from the JSNA (Joint Strategic Needs Assessment).

A recent report comissioned from Reading Healthwatch about people taking themselves to A&E shows that most people are not making the wrong decision in attending. Members of South Reading Patient Voice volunteered to help Reading Healthwatch complete the "Week in A&E" survey. The recent report shows that many patients had been recommended to attend A&E at RBH by another NHS service from which they had first sought help.

Despite a petition with over 2 million signatures, funding to pharmacies is to be reduced.v/ Cuts will fall hardest on the smaller pharmacies unless they are the only pharmacy for their community. Please see the attached document for further details.

Community rehabilitation beds at Oakwood Ward, Prospect Park Hospital, are being cut from 35 to 24. Oakwood Ward, at Prospect Park Hospital, is a 35 single-roomed self-contained rehabilitation unit of the PFI funded site. The single room nature is not ideal for the predominantly frail elderly patients and requires a large nursing staff to ensure safety and quality. Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, has been unable to staff the ward without using an excessive number of agency staff.