Agenda item

a)          West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Council representative, Councillor Kane;

b)          West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Transport Delivery Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Council representative, Councillor Munro; and

c)           Worcestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) – Council representative, Councillor Munro.

Updates on the meetings of External Scrutiny bodies were provided by the representatives as follows:

a)    West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Council Representative, Councillor Kane

Councillor Kane reported that the last meeting took place on Monday 3^rd March where the West Midlands State of the Region 2024/25 report was presented. The report focused on inequalities across the West Midlands Combined Authority region in areas such as the economy, housing, health, and civic participation. It was highlighted among other things that the growth in the average disposable income in the West Midlands was lower than the UK average and that 25 per cent of the population felt they could impact on their local decision-making, slightly higher than the national figure of 23 per cent.

b)    West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Transport Delivery Overview and Scrutiny – Council Representative, Councillor Munro

Councillor Munro reported that no matters of relevance to Redditch were discussed at the last meeting of Transport Delivery Overview and Scrutiny.

c)     Worcestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) – Council Representative, Councillor Munro

Councillor Munro reported that the last meeting took place on 20^th February. There were two main items on the agenda at that meeting, both of considerable relevance to Redditch: mitigation of winter pressures on urgent and emergency care, and the overview of winter pressures from West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS).

Councillor Munro reported that a presentation by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was provided into winter pressures. The Trust had a winter plan designed to reduce ambulance handover times, improve emergency department waiting times, improve emergency access standard performance, and reduce number of patients receiving corridor care, however, the representative highlighted that the overall results were disappointing and the improvements expected were not being delivered.

It was cited that the Trust had an overall performance target that by March 2025 78 per cent of patients attending the emergency department should be admitted to hospital, transferred to another provider, or discharged within four hours. The actual figure being achieved as of January 2025 was 57.2 per cent. The target for patients spending over twelve hours in emergency department was 7 per cent. The latest performance data showed this to be at 11 per cent.

It was reported that the Trust had attempted to reduce ambulance handover delays but there remained significant concern over the number of handover delays and lost paramedic hours. There were some improvements such as discharges from both the Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Worcester, and Alexandra Hospital, Redditch, increasing by circa 10 per cent compared to the previous year. Corridor care had remained a considerable problem at both hospitals, and the January 2025 figures from the ambulance service had indicated that handover delays had reduced, particularly at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

Councillor Munro reiterated that the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust had been subject of a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2023 and was found to ‘require improvement’. Councillor Munro commented that the need for improvement remained, with the Trust still placed in Tier 1, requiring the highest level of support and improvement, and being required to report to the Department of Health on a weekly basis.

Councillor Munro reported that an an overview from West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) was also provided at the 20^th February meeting. It was reported that the position on handover delays between WMAS and the Trust hospitals had deteriorated sharply since August 2024. However, ambulance response times across Worcestershire and Herefordshire had seen a considerable improvement and on average were close to achieving the 18-minute target for category 2 emergency calls and were achieving the national 30-minute response target for less urgent calls; it was reported that these WMAS was achieving these targets despite the issues at the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Councillor Munro reported that WMAS had made an investment of over £4 million to increase the number of ambulances and staff, with the workforce expanded by 334 staff and the ambulance fleet increasing from 340 to 420. The investment had been fifty per cent funded by the Department of Health, with the remaining half to be funded jointly by the Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) within the WMAS catchment area. Only the Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB was yet to agree payment terms with WMAS.

Councillor Munro quoted figures on the lost paramedic hours across the areas covered by WMAS. The loss of paramedic hours due to hospital handover delays was expected to be 255,000 hours by April 2025. This figure was already reached by January 2025 for the year 2024/25 and it was expected that the final figure for the year would be circa 375,000 paramedic hours lost across the WMAS catchment.

RESOLVED that

the External Scrutiny Bodies updates be noted.