MEMORANDUM Date: 22 December 2005
______
To: All Members of the County Council From: County Secretary's
All Chief Officers Department Ask For: Laura Shewfelt
Ext: 25565
My Ref: Your Ref:
______
HEALTH SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
15 DECEMBER 2005
M I N U T E S
ATTENDANCE
MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE
COUNTY COUNCILLORS
P T J Channell, K J Coleman, M Downing (Chairman), D W Hills, J A Hobday, N A Hollinghurst, B J Lamb, B Lee, S M P Newton, D A A Peek, T J Price, S Quilty (Vice-Chairman), E T Roach, A S M Witherick
DISTRICT COUNCILLORS
G Sutton, B White
PATIENT AND PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT FORUM REPRESENTATIVES
H Durbin, C Reynolds, M Taylor,
Also present
Executive Members
D E Lloyd
Other Members
D B Lloyd
R Mays
A Mitchell
CHAIRMAN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Chairman informed the Committee that District Councillor representative, David Cullen, had undergone a kidney transplant operation and was currently in hospital.The Committee resolved to pass on its best wishes to Councillor Cullen for a speedy recovery.
MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 23 November, 2005 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.
Matters Arising
The Committee agreed that the financial issues around the establishment of a Surgicentre at the Lister Hospital needed to be looked at in more depth at its meeting in January 2006.
PUBLIC PETITIONS
None.
QUESTIONS
None.
PART 1
/ / ACTION /1. / HEALTHY HOSPITALS
[Officer Contact: David Moses, Head of Scrutiny (Tel: 01992 555300)
1.1 / The Committee received a report seeking its agreement to establish a joint committee to scrutinise the healthy Hospitals proposals in respect of Chase Farm and Barnet General Hospitals.
Simon Weldon from Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital Trust made a presentation to the Committee, taking it through the proposals.
Members were reminded that arrangements had been established in 2004, for the formation of a joint Barnet, Enfield and Hertfordshire Health Scrutiny Committee to scrutinise the proposals. At that time it was intended that the committee be comprised on a proportional basis in accordance with the joint client basis of the two hospitals with Hertfordshire having 2 places and the London Boroughs of Barnet and Enfield each having 3 places.
In view of the local impact on the Broxbourne and Hertsmere Borough Council areas, it was proposed that each of these be invited to appoint one member to have observer status at meetings of the joint committee. Whilst the HCC members of the committee were to be the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Health Scrutiny Committee it was also agreed that a local opposition County Councillor from the Hertsmere and a local administration County Councillor from the Broxbourne area be appointed as standing substitutes.
These proposals were never activated due to the General Election but there was now a need to do so.
1.2 / (i)
(ii)
(iii) / Conclusions:
The Committee thanked the representative of Chase Farm and Barnet Hospital Trust for giving an open presentation and requested:
a. Formal feedback on recent reconfiguration at Chase Farm and Barnet Hospitals; and
b. a formal response, at the appropriate time, from the Strategic Health Authority on the likely impact to Hertfordshire Health Services and for this written response to be distributed to all Members of the Committee.
The Committee agreed to establish a Joint Health Scrutiny Committee with the London Boroughs of Barnet & Enfield in order to scrutinise the Healthy Hospitals proposals. Hertfordshire's representation on this was to be the Chairman and Vice-chairman of the Health Scrutiny Committee with a local opposition member from Hertsmere and an administration member from Broxbourne as named substitutes.
The Committee noted that whilst it was important that Members were kept informed at the appropriate level, i.e. County Health Scrutiny Committee and the Broxbourne & Hertsmere PCT Scrutiny Committees, consideration would need to be given to the best use of member and officer resources, and to avoid duplication of detailed considerations by the Barnet, Enfield & Hertfordshire Joint Scrutiny Committee. / CFB Hospitals Trust
SHA
David Moses
David Moses
2. / STRATEGIC HEALTH AUTHORITY QUARTERLY MONITORING REPORT
[Officer Contact: David Moses, Head of Scrutiny (Tel: 01992 555300)
2.1 / The Committee was presented with a quarterly finance and performance report which had been presented to the Board of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Strategic Health Authority on 12 November 2005.
Ruth Davison, Strategic Health Authority presented the report, which detailed the financial position, the cash position and the consequent impact on the achievement of the performance targets at Month 6.
2.2 / (i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v) / Conclusions:
In respect of the financial monitoring report, the Committee:
Expressed concerns at the current financial situation and had serious reservations over the validity of the Financial Recovery Plans as presented at a previous meeting of this Committee and the potential impact on future performance targets.
Noted the willingness of the Strategic Health Authority’s Director of Delivery to provide a more detailed report in January 2006. It also requested that the Chief Executives of the Hertfordshire PCTs and Health Trusts be represented in order that the Committee could reach an informed decision in respect of any further action that it may wish to take.
Requested a report from the Director of Adult Care Services on the potential impact on the Adult Care Services budget.
In respect of the report on performance indicators, the Committee:
Congratulated the Health Services on their performance against cancer targets.
Requested more detailed information to be presented at the next meeting on performance against MRSA targets. / SHA/PCTs/ WHHT/
E&NHHT/
HPT
Sarah Pickup
SHA
3. / WEST HERTS. HOSPITALS NHS TRUST TURNAROUND PLAN
[Officer Contact: David Moses, Head of Scrutiny (Tel: 01992 555300)
3.1 / David Law, West Herts. Hospitals NHS Trust (WHHT), made a presentation to the Committee in relation to the Trusts Turnaround Plan.
The presentation outlined the history of financial problems in this area of Hertfordshire prior to the formation of the WHHT. The Trust had experienced financial difficulties since its inception and faced significant national and regional issues.
The Trust had been working with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) with a view to identifying opportunities for bringing the Trust back to recurrent financial balance. Four streams of work had emerged from this:
· Driving clinical efficiency
· Driving non-clinical efficiency
· Aligning people and tasks
· Maximising income
In total, the savings from these plans amounted to approximately £12m in a full year. Even after implementation of all these schemes, the forecast in-year deficit for the Trust in 2006/07 was in excess of £5m and there would still be an in-year deficit in 2007/08.
As part of its work, PwC reviewed the Trust’s feasibility study for interim reconfiguration and this work was continuing. These changes were consistent with Investing In Your Health. A rigorous feasibility study, including extensive clinical engagement was ongoing to develop the proposed model of interim service change. It was proposed that the preferred option would be brought to the Health topic Group in January. Following this a full consultation was planned.
2.2 / (i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv) / Conclusions:
The Committee:
Received assurance that the detailed proposals to be presented in January 2006 would be in line with the Investing In Your Health Strategy.
Noted that the proposed timescale for the Turnaround Plan reflected the need for the Surgicentre to be in place and required more detailed work before embarking on public consultation.
Received assurance that the Health Care Services in the Hemel Hempstead area would be able to cope with any long term increase in respiratory problems resulting from the recent incident at the Buncefield Oil Depot, as well as responding to any future major incident.
Requested a similar briefing note to be circulated by the West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust as that provided to Members of the Committee by the East & North Herts NHS Hospital Trust. It was also agreed that both reports should be distributed to PPIF Members of the Committee. / WHHT/ E&NHHT
4. / REPORT OF THE HEALTH TOPIC GROUP
[Officer Contact: David Moses, Head of Scrutiny (Tel: 01992 555300)
4.1 / The Committee noted the update report on the work of the Health Topic Group.
5. / UPDATE ON WORK OF THE BEDFORDSHIRE, HERTFORDSHIRE AND LUTON JOINT HEALTH SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
[Officer Contact: David Moses, Head of Scrutiny (Tel: 01992 555300)
5.1 / The Committee noted the update report on the work of the Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Luton Joint Health Scrutiny Committee.
6. / TEENAGE PREGNANCY SCOPING DOCUMENT
[Officer Contact: David Moses, Head of Scrutiny (Tel: 01992 555300)
6.1 / The Committee noted the scoping document and approved the terms of reference for the Topic Group, which it had established at its meeting on 11 October 2005.
The Committee agreed that Jane Hobday would be Chairman the Topic Group and that Sally Newton would be the Vice-Chairman. / Natalie Rotherham/ Laura Shewfelt
7. / WARD CLOSURE AT ADDENBROOKES HOSPITAL
[Officer Contact: David Moses, Head of Scrutiny (Tel: 01992 555300)
The Head of Scrutiny advised Members of an article in the Cambridge Evening News which detailed plans for the closure of a ward for the elderly at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge.
(i)
(ii) / Conclusions:
The Committee noted that both the Royston, Buntingford & Bishops Stortford PCT and HCC's Adult Care Services had learnt of these proposals in the local press and:
Requested the Head of Scrutiny to draw their concerns to the Addendrookes Hospital Trust regarding the lack of communication and consultation.
Requested Addenbrookes Hospital Trust and Royston Buntingford & Bishops Stortford PCT to attend the next meeting in order to brief members on the implications to Hertfordshire residents. The Director of Adult Care Services was also asked to inform members of the potential impact to HCC's Adult Care Services. / David Moses
AHT/
RBBS PCT
Andrew Laycock
County Secretary
1
S:\Member & Committee\Committees\SCRUTINY\Health Scrutiny Committee\Minutes\15 december 2005 minutes.doc