Here in Sussex we are about to try and revive this. As far as I know there is nothing in place at the moment. Any advice on who what and why would be appreciated.
Also is there any statutory basis for these, eg required by NTA or central government

Sorry to be so naive but I spend my time doing clinical not management stuff

Hi Jerry
As I have recently left the NTA I can give you a steer from there. Basically SCMGs are seen as an ideal vehicle through which to implement clinical govenance in a DAAT/partnership, being a local multi-agency forum. The NTA are therefore very much in support of reviving SCMGs in every area - many have become defunct over the years, as their original work of recruiting GPs and setting up prescribing protocols was largely seen to be done.
All the key players in your local shared care arrangements need to be represented, as well as clinical governance representation from the PCT. I'm sure others would have extra suggestions to add to these!
There is a draft document on the NTA website on clinical governance in drugs services which gives more detail about the processes, roles and responsibilities involved Clinical governance in drug treatment: a draft good practice guide for providers and commiissioners (incidentally this is out for public consulatation and the deadline for responses is 14th May - that's just 5 weeks away folks!!)

Hi Jerry

Jim Barnard is well-placed to advise on this, and hopefully he will.

But in the meantime...as someone who has spent a lot of time (when I worked for SMMGP) trying to help set them up, and for the last few years who has worked directly inside a very functional one, I would say:

* I don't think there's any kind of statutory obligation
* the NTA would, I am sure, think that a SCMG is a good idea
* there's always a lack of clarity about where the respective remits of the local Treatment Task Group and the SCMG should overlap, or be delineated
* the SCMG is often where a very useful concentration of clinical expertise lies (i.e. you tend to get a few 'jobbing' GPs and community pharmacists coming along) compared to the TTGs which often include more generic or prevention/enforcement colleagues who are not directly involved in primary-care based clinical work. In that respect I think they feel very relevant to the those GPs/community pharmacists who want commit to drug treatment, and reinforce their desire to remain engaged.

I'm sure there's more ....

Simon

Hi Jerry

We have recently re-vamped out meeting's Terms of Reference. Happy to share if you e-mail me (in publice profile).
Jane

Hi Jerry

ah the history of shared care monitoring groups!
They were first recommended to be set up in the 1999 clinical guidelines. At first this didn't happen, then a year or so later each Health Authority was give 20K to set one up (this was intended to pay for locum costs, refreshments etc) but this was one off non recurring money. With the money came a suggested terms of reference and suggested membership(which is probably still on our web site) which is now horrendously out of date. Anyway these days the groups are not always called shared care monitoring groups but its the function that matters, rather than the name.

I would say that some of the original aims still hold as in oversee the development of treatment services in primary care, ensure training opportunities, develop local guidelines etc. However They are becoming much more clinical governance focused these days so quality issues (rather than quantity - of GPs involved) are going to be more to the fore than they were then --

It needs people to value it for it to be valuable , so make sure you get the right people to sit on it and that they are keen to do so.

If you want to talk this through further with me feel free to contact me on

smmgp@freeuk.com
0151 632 0409

Just a little add on to the above discussion - Don't forget to invite your local Service User groups onto SCMG's.
This works very well for us locally, and has led to joint Pharmacy Training sessions between Shared Care gp's and Service Users, and Service Users have also felt part of the decision making process.

Thanks for this folks. I will take these thoughts back to our new PCT. I would love to have service user representation but we have no reps at the moment as services are being recommissioned

Hi Jim, Simon,

Remember me from good old Lincoln?
The PCT here are rationalising the way GPs are being reimbursed and so the defunct SCMG is sort of being resurrected. There are schemes for different areas and different GPs are being paid in different ways and no official LES as such.

I will be going to the first such meeting this month. Would it be OK to involve you guys again, as you helped a lot in 2002 (as I mentioned in my DVD played in Brighton conference 08)

Hi Elmer

good to hear from you. I think things are better in Lincoln than they were anyway. Unfortunately we are not funded to do the sort of hands on work that we used to do. It might be possible for someone to come to a meeting but you may need to pay for attendance. You're best bet if you want to negotiate something is to e-mail Kate Halliday on smmgp@btinternet.com

I haven't announced this on the web site yet but I have got another job and am leaving snngp (last day is tomorrow, although I am doing a few more odd days as a reciprocal arrnagement and I will be at the conference) I've relly enjoyed working for SMMGP, its been my best ever job, but I've been doing it 8 years and I had to move on sometime. My new job is working for Inclusion drug and Alcohol services implememnting an IAPT programme in Liverpool (Increased Access to Psychological Terapies).

Jim , your calm good sense will be missed.

We may all need some "IAPT" if we are to cope without you.

I hope I will have time to drop into the forums now and again, however so hopefully it's just adieu. Simon (Morton) has managed to kept it up since leaving and I'll take him as a role model.

quote:

hope I will have time to drop into the forums now and again, however so hopefully it's just adieu. Simon (Morton) has managed to kept it up since leaving and I'll take him as a role model.

Hey, thanks for that Jim.

Yes Elmer. I'm long gone from the paid employment of SMMGP (about 5 years now). But I've posted as much since then as I ever did before, that's how much it's become part of my (working) life I guess.

Jim - it was a priviledge to work with you (and Chris F/Chris M/JC et al).
But (as you know from me having recently phoned you only to find you holidaying in the heart of France) I'll continue to keep ringing you when I need a reference for a particularly arcane piece of research.

Or more likely just for a gossip.

Good luck matey.

Cheers

Simon

quote:

I think things are better in Lincoln than they were anyway

Hey Jim,

Things are better here because of guys like you, Simon, Chris, Kate and with the backing of the whole community that is the SMMGP forum.

You should all be proud of your achievements, and it was a pleasure to be part of the evolution of drug services that you guys championed.

My original posting for help in 2002 was instantly picked up by the team, and this led to major changes here as the team set about troubleshooting.

Many patients have benefited, "saved" almost. For one of those original patients, her happy story continued last week, I went to her wedding. She was a completely different person, with a normal life. Her parents told me that the wedding wouldn't have happened without my help, but I know that it wouldn't have happened without the help I received from the SMMGP.

So thanks Jim, and good luck mate!!