Minutes:
The Committee welcomed Officers from the Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust and invited them to deliver a presentation (Appendix 1). During the delivery of this presentation the following matters were highlighted for Members’ consideration:
· Since the last update to the Committee progress had been made and there was now a Herefordshire and Worcestershire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP).
· A key focus of the partnership was on improving health and wellbeing within the area covered by the plan whilst tackling the financial challenges facing partners in the health service.
· Access and outcomes were important and shaped how the STP was measured at a national level.
· Work had been undertaken since the last update to solidify governance arrangements. There needed to be collective decision making for the STP and to help ensure that this occurred an independent Chair had been recruited to the board.
· An Engagement Officer had also been recruited, supported by external funding, to help improve the approach of partners to consultation in respect of the STP.
· Work was taking place on a Local Maternity Systems Plan, which would involve consulting with women, assessing levels of demand locally and designing services to meet community needs moving forward.
· Consultation was also being undertaken in respect of Cancer Services as it was recognised that this was a challenging area in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
· Such work sometimes entailed engaging with specialist groups based outside the area, such as the West Midlands Palliative Care end of life group, in order to obtain relevant expertise about how improvements could be made to local services.
· National care was an area that required further investigation. The STP had been able to access external funding to help address the impact of demand for services during the winter period and this had been invested in ambulatory services.
· Neighbourhood teams had been introduced across the two counties, including two in the Borough. This involved integrated partners pooling resources to meet health needs within their locality.
Following delivery of the presentation Members requested further information on a number of areas:
· The current situation with regard to the Urgent Care Plan for the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch. Members were advised that partners had planned how to manage pressures on winter services as a whole system rather than as individual organisations and this had helped services to meet demand.
· The need to make appropriate plans to enable older patients to return to their homes with the assurance that they would receive appropriate care. A pilot initiative to address this, involving partnership working, had been held in Malvern but it had been concluded that this would be more appropriate to deliver at the Alexandra Hospital.
· The need for more work to be undertaken to review transport links between the north and south of Worcestershire and the impact that this might have both on patients and on staff.
· The extent to which representatives of Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service had been involved in the work of local neighbourhood teams. The Committee was informed that representatives of the fire service had delivered presentations to the teams on subjects such as fire safety in the home and greater involvement was being piloted in some neighbourhood teams.
· The Local Maternity Systems Plan and the potential impact that this might have on staffing levels. Members were advised that this work was based on national strategies and was in the preliminary stages.
· The recent announcement at the national level by email that more training places were being commissioned for medical staff. Worcester University had a plan to train more medical staff and the STP was investigating action that could be taken to encourage trained staff to remain in the area once they qualified.
· The difficulty with national shortages in respect of a number of specialist medical professions and the impact that this had in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
· The introduction of new Health Care Assistant roles and the positive impact that this would have on the workforce.
· The availability of perinatal mental health services. Members were advised that the STP had an opportunity to bid for funding to enhance these services, which were currently available in Worcestershire though there were no such services in Herefordshire.
· The potential for neighbourhood teams to encourage people to report to the most appropriate medical professional to meet their needs, helping GPs to concentrate on the most serious cases where their skills were needed.
· The role of social prescribers in helping to refer patients to alternative sources of support that could help to enhance their health and wellbeing in the long-term.
· The length of time that had been spent working on STPs in the country to date and the extent to which these plans had had a positive impact on health services.
· The negative press that had been received nationally in respect of STPs and the need for health services to improve communications about positive outcomes from work on the STPs in order to reassure the public.
· The extent to which population growth, as a result of housing development, had been taken into account when developing the STPs. Members were advised that Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) had a statutory duty to consult with local Councils and these issues should be picked up through this process.
· The approach taken to monitoring the performance of the STP. The Committee was informed that there were constitutional targets and data was provided in the form of a dashboard, the latest copy of which could be provided for Members’ consideration.
· The value of receiving a further update on progress with the STP in approximately six months’ time.
· The potential for representatives of the two neighbourhood teams in Redditch to attend the meeting of the Committee when the next update on the STP would be provided.
RESOLVED that
1) a further update in respect of the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership be provided to the Committee in approximately six months’ time;
2) representatives of the local neighbourhood teams for Redditch be invited to attend the meeting when this update is delivered; and
3) the report be noted.