Special Meeting of the Council held with Mrs. Robyn Miller, Acting Senior Nurse, GP Out of Hours, ABUHB on Wednesday, 29 March 2017 in the Council Chamber, Orchard Street, Brynmawr at 5.30pm.

Present:-CouncillorsM. I. Morgan(Chair).

Mrs. O.M. Swales

H.J. Swales

I.R.K. Jenkins

T.S. Hughes

Barrie M. Sutton

Mrs. D. Brown

W.K. Hodgins

Mr. J. M. Gardner

Ms. S. M. Morgan

Mrs. J. Boyd

N. Boyd

Apologies:-Mrs. A.C. Davies, P.G. Morgan, D. Lyn Elias, B.I. Nash, Mrs. M. Morris.

The Chair welcomed Mrs. Miller, Acting Senior Nurse, GP Out of Hours, ABUHB to the meeting and asked Councillours to introduce themselves.

Mrs. Miller wanted to explain the outcomes of the recent trial of the closure of Nevil Hall Hospital, from Mon, at 12 midnight – Thurs, 8am and explained that there is only two weeks left of the consultation phase for discussions to take place.

Mrs. Miller explained what Urgent Primary Care was (OOHs) Service.

The service is for urgent primary care needs, which cannot wait until the next available in-hours surgery appointments. They are open from Mon – Thurs 6.30pm – 8.00am and Fri from 6.30pm – 8.00am Mon morning including Bank Holidays.

The service is responsible for identifying immediate life threatening conditions, identifying those whose treatment cannot wait, to defer patients who can wait to see their own GP'S and to support patients at or near to their own homes.

Mrs Miller explained to members that the challenge they have is filling the clinical shifts for the high demand times which is from Friday – Monday. She explained the majority of Dr's are self employed so they provide the service and then invoice the ABUHB.

Dr's who pre -book shifts 4 weeks in advance will be on a higher rate than those who book closer to the shift. This have resulted in increased shift booking at less cost.

ABUHB are going to increase the number of Nurses who will be able to treat and prescribe medication, leaving the more complex patients for the GPs resulting in them being able to spend more time with each patient. There will be an increase in staff over night to four teams and two of the teams will have Health Care Support Workers with them.

A member asked regarding the structure of the GP Service where people are not able to get through to make an appointment via the telephone system. Is this causing a strain on the OOHs.

Mrs Miller said yes it is causing a strain on the OOHs not only in Blaenau Gwent but across the whole of Wales. The ABUHB will be looking at demand management very closely to try to rectify the issues.

A member asked Mrs Miller do calls received for home visits accumulate and are they all dealt with on the day they are recorded.

Mrs Miller said yes on times calls do accumulate over the weekends but throughout the week all calls are dealt with and emergency calls are all covered.

Mrs Miller informed members that in April 2017 paramedics will be put in North Gwent in the Nevil Hall Hospital area. Wales is the only OOHs that have not yet had to close their services due to no GP'S. The members were informed that Gwent will be moving to the 111 programme shortly.

Mrs Miller explained that during the 6 weeks trial that there were only 20 individuals came to OOHs which worked out less than 1 patient per night, 4 home visits and 16 redirected to St Woolos Hospital or Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr Hospital.

Mrs Miller explained that there will be increased Nurse Practitioners, a team of nurses overnight split between the 3 bases, Extended Pharmacy Schemes and to make sure people with mental health issues are informed of the appropriate services they can contact when needed rather than them ringing the emergency services which may not be of any help to them.

Mrs Miller informed the meeting that 50% of their patients are under 5 therefore they will be employing more Paediatric Nurses in the Newport area where the demand is greater. There will be more Nurses going to home calls with GP'S.

A member asked will the ABUHB be taking on new staff or redeploying existing staff.

Mrs Miller explained that the shift pattern will be changing so staff will be changing shifts at different times as it is now all staff change shifts at the same time. The question was not answered.

A member asked Mrs Miller due to finding it hard recruiting nursing staff, would you consider looking at visiting schools to recruit students who would be interested in nursing for a career.

Mrs Miller said not everyone wants student loans so we are already looking at different path ways into nursing.

A member asked are you going to be monitoring Nevil Hall Hospital over a period of time to see if it is working.

Mrs Miller said we are the last area to reduce OOHs through the week, we are providing alternatives and if there was to be an outbreak of flu etc we would be able to open up the base temporally.

Mrs Miller thanked Council for meeting her and said she would look forward to future meetings.

Meeting closed at 18.15 hours.