People are being encouraged to attend a number of meetings to be held this month to hear about plans for the future of healthcare in the area.

Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group’s (SDCCG) - which covers 33 GP practices across areas including Epsom, Ewell, Ashtead, Banstead and Esher - will be holding two public engagement events to talk about its plans for the NHS in the area and to answer questions and take feedback on its plans.

The events will be held from 11am to 3pm, at the Ebbisham Centre, in Epsom town centre, next Tuesday, January 20, and at Magnet Kitchens, in Esher High Street, on Friday, January 23.

Later in the month, a public meeting, the Future of Local Healthcare, will be held at Epsom Hospital, in the lecture theatre on the second floor of the Wells Wing, on Tuesday, January 27, at 7pm.

The event, organised by the Epsom and Ewell Conservative Association, will include talks from Dr Simon Williams, a GP and SDCCG board member, and the CCG’s chief officer Miles Freeman.

The evening will be chaired by Surrey County councillor Tina Mountain, who represents Epsom Town and Downs and is a member of the council’s health scrutiny committee.

The talk will cover issues including the CCG’s responsibilities, its vision and priorities for healthcare in Surrey, and integrated community and primary care.

Last month, the Epsom Guardian revealed that SDCCG is more than £11m in deficit and that recovery of this will involve major "service transformation" and efficiency savings at Epsom Hospital.

Mr Freeman told this newspaper: "We need to make sure we are contracting well with Epsom Hospital.

"There is potentially a driver that it’s been an organisation which has improved its financial position, partially through a savings programme but largely by growing its contract with Surrey Downs and we can't allow that to continue to happen so there will be negotiations with the hospital about how we can jointly make efficiency savings."

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW: 'Major service transformation and Epsom Hospital efficiency savings required to recover £11.4m deficit', says CCG boss

CCGs were set up by the 2012 Health and Social Care Act as GP organisations responsible for commissioning the majority of an area’s secondary care services such as hospitals. They replaced primary care trusts, which were dissolved last April, and are overseen by NHS England.