Issue - meetings

The Board received the following updates relating to the content of the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme:

a)    Overview and Scrutiny Board – 13th April meeting

Officers explained that the Board was due to consider a number of items on 13th April.  This would include:

·         The quarterly recommendation tracker.

·         The Making Experiences Count Update Report.

·         The Overview and Scrutiny Board’s Annual Report 2014/15.

·         A discussion of Overview and Scrutiny training arrangements in the new municipal year.

b)    Worcestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC)

The Council’s representative on the HOSC, Councillor B. T. Cooper, explained that a detailed update on the work of the Committee would be provided at the following meeting of the Board.  However, he did provide a brief update on the latest meeting of the HOSC and advised Members that the following matters had been considered:

·         Mental health services and support for elderly patients.  Further detailed information about these services would be considered at a future meeting.

·         An update on the Alexandra Hospital following the resignation of 5 A&E consultants.  At the time of the meeting the letter detailing the consultants’ reasons for resigning had not been available for public consideration.  The Committee had been advised that 3 of the consultants would be leaving in May 2015 and the other 2 would leave later in the summer.  The Committee had been advised that no decision had been reached regarding options for the future management of the hospital, though the trust was aiming to keep an A&E department and to recruit consultants to replace the departing staff.

At the next meeting of the HOSC Members would be considering the issues impacting on patients who were registered with a GP practice in a Clinical Commissioning Group located outside Worcestershire.

The Chairman expressed concerns about the future of the Expert Patient Programme in Worcestershire.  Worcestershire County Council was no longer investing in this programme.  However, whilst it was difficult to measure the impact of the programme there was evidence to suggest that the scheme led to long-term benefits for patients.  Members requested that the issue be raised at a future meeting of HOSC.