County Durham Primary Care trust is holding a series of meetings across the county over the coming fortnight or so to discuss the development of plans for health and health care over the next five years.

The meeting for Durham City area takes place on Thursday 15 May at County Hall (Committee Room 2) between 6 pm and 8 pm.

All members of the public are welcome to attend.

More information is available at http://www.countydurhampct.nhs.uk/

County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals Foundation Trust, for which I was recently elected a public governor,  is carrying out a review of its services to help develop a strategic vision for the next five years called “Seizing The Future”.

Public involvement is being actively encouraged, so if you want to know more about the process and/or feed in your own views, then click on seizingthefuture.hub.uk.com to get to the web pages dedicated to the process.

I received on Wednesday to tell me that I had been re-elected to the Governing Council of the County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals Foundation Trust for a three year term.

Many thanks to those who supported me.

The voting figures were:

I remain very concerned about the small number of residents who have ‘joined’ the trust and so are able to take part in the election.

I do encourage as many people to join as possible to make public accountability more effective.

Details of how to do this are in my earlier “manifesto” posting on the subject.

I am up for re-election as a Public Governor of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) to represent the Durham City District.

It is very difficult to communicate with the (500 or so) electors as candidates only had 100 words to promote themselves on the ballot information that is being sent out today.

So if you are an elector and are reading this, I hope you will see from this web site that I am a campaigning local councillor who knows how to call people to account. [For details about how to become an elector, se the end of this posting.]

I was elected as the third of three representatives for Durham City a year ago. Since then I have attended every meeting of the Governors and of the two committees I am on. I have been Chair of the Audit Committee which is responsible for appointing the Trust Auditors and for reporting back to Governors on the financial arrangements of the Trust.

I have also been a member of the Advisory Committee, which has done a lot of work in the first year of the Foundation Trust in sorting out important (if not very exciting) procedural issues.

Foundation trusts have a very different relationship with local communities and with government compared to non-foundation trusts. They have to operate in a more ‘commercial’ fashion and are more susceptible to changing relationships with primary care trusts (PCTs) and GP services.

The new Chief Executive has started a new initiative called “Seizing the Future” which will do a fundamental review of services. There is information about this at a link on the web page http://www.cddft.nhs.uk/. Governors will be fully involved in the process.

In my view we have to ensure that hospital services remain accessible to the communities they serve. That will be my main focus if I am re-elected.

We all know that public transport services have deteriorated over the past 20 years, so I will aim to use my links with the County Council to lobby for a joined up approach by the Trust and the Council to provide the sort of service we all expect.

My other focus will be on the financial side where my long experience of holding to account those who spend public money will be valuable.

I am particularly concerned to look closely at the various privatised services to see whether they do the job we expect and whether we get value for money. I hope that if you are able to vote, you will give me your support.

Joining the trust

If you are not an elector (or ‘member of the Trust’ as it is properly described) but are over 16 and live within the area served by the trust, may I encourage you and your family members to join. Here is a membership application form.

Click on http://www.cddft.nhs.uk/About+Us/FoundationTrustStatus/Home.htm to find out more - you cannot vote in this election, but if you join, you will be able to vote or stand as a candidate in your area in the future.