The second of the two conferences at which the Partnership reported on its work through 1998-99 and sought a mandate to continue. Trust Chief Executives attended to agree the programme of activity for the following year. At this conference, there were detailed reports of progress made by two project groups – Paediatric Gastroenterology services and the Partnership Medical Workforce Strategy – as well as an overview of the 10 projects supported by the Partnership. Double Figures….!! A summary of the event can be found in Chapter 4 (p18 et seq) of Report of Year 2 of the Partnership and in the Appendices. Copy here.
Points in the plenary discussion included:
1. that, through the sub-speciality service projects, PiP was testing an alternative way of organising services “we are calling it the ‘network model’. PiP is providing a structure for the ‘slow growth’ of service reconfiguration. And PiP is an important promotion to tertiary centres that access to and quality of specialist services are issues which are not just to be determined centrally.” (p17) Ensuring the member Trusts were fully behind this work was crucial “…trust chief executives…who attended the conference were enthusiastic about PiP’s work. PiP now needs to check whether chief executives of other member trusts…are committed to taking the next steps.” (p18)
