The state of Reading's health and wellbeing will be presented by Kim Wilkins of Reading Borough Council's Public Health team along with a look at how the state of our health is assessed and how it is used by our CCG in planning developments in health care. Click here to get started with JSNA = Joint Strategic Needs Assessment for Reading. We will also be receiving news from Patient Participation Groups, from Healthwatch and from our CCG as well as national NHS news of interest to us. CCG area.

Dr Gerard D'Cruz will be talking about the planned GP Chambers in Craven Road at our next meeting on Wednesday, 30th March at 6pm, at 94, London Street, RG1 4SJ. We will also discuss news about local health and social care, items from Healthwatch Reading, from South Reading CCG and from patient participation groups at surgeries in the South Reading CCG area.

South Reading Patient Voice meets again on Wednesday, 25th May at 6pm at Reading Community Learning Centre, 94, London Street, RG1 4SJ. Three short talks by members of the group will provide insights into widely different areas of the health economy. Douglas Findlay will talk about the new Sustainability and Transformation Plan areas, Shaheen Kausar will talk about Health, Language and the work of the Reading Community Learning Centre, and Philip Lowry will talk about his experiences in early work with human growth hormone, and how it looked in retrospect.

 South Reading Patient Voice has written to the leader of the new COBWeB area (Commissioning for Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Western Berkshire) asking for patients and public to be involved in the five year planning which is due to be presented in June 2016 and finalised in July 2016.

The current reorganisation of the English NHS into "Sustainability and Transformation" areas was one of the topics at the Health and Wellbeing Board meeting held at short notice at Reading's Civic Offices on 14th June. The Western half of Berkshire is joined with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire in a new health planning area known variously as COBWeb, WeBOB or BOB, under the leadership of David Smith, CEO of Oxfordshire CCG.