Agenda item

Overview and Scrutiny Board Work Programme

Minutes:

The Board considered the content of the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme. During consideration of this item a number of issues were considered.

a) Worcestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC)

Councillor B. T. Cooper, the Council’s representative on Worcestershire HOSC, explained that the latest meeting of the Committee had taken place on 15th July. During this meeting 2 key items were considered:

i) Primary Care Commissioning and GP Access

In 2015 there was due to be a change to the commissioning responsibilities for primary care services and for basic general practice, with some services being devolved from NHS England to local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).

Patient satisfaction surveys had been undertaken in recent months which appeared to indicate that the CCGs in Worcestershire were performing slightly better than general for CCGs at a national level. In total 87 per cent of patients in practices that formed part of the Redditch and Bromsgrove CCG had reported that they had been able to get an appointment to see a medical practitioner when needed compared to 85 per cent of patients nationally.

Issues had been reported during the Committee meeting concerning the experiences of patients living on the borders of Worcestershire. This included:

· Patients with a GP in Alvechurch had discovered that their practices were part of a satellite group of practices for the South Birmingham CCG. These patients were finding that access to services within Worcestershire were partly restricted as a consequence.

· Anecdotal reports had been received that elderly residents from Alvechurch had been sent to hospitals outside Worcestershire rather than the Princess of Wales Community Hospital due to the funding implications of being a patient served by a GP Practice that was not part of a Worcestershire CCG.

· Councillor J. M. L. A. Griffiths reported that as a patient in a GP Practice that did not form part of a Worcestershire GP Practice she had been informed she was not eligible for a free flu vaccination in Worcestershire.

· Delays had occurred in terms of discharging patients from the Alexandra Hospital who lived in Hagley and who were patients with a GP Practice that was not part of a Worcestershire CCG.

· Patients discharged from hospital had found that they had limited access to post-operative care in cases where their GP practice was not part of a Worcestershire CCG.

This problem had been raised during a recent CALC meeting and the Chair of the Redditch and Bromsgrove CCG had been invited to attend a future meeting in order to discuss potential solutions. Members were also advised that Councillor J. M. L. A. Griffiths was due to attend a meeting alongside Parish Council members and representatives of Worcestershire Healthwatch, to discuss this matter further.

Members were advised that the CCGs had been made aware of these issues though had not yet identified a solution to the problem. In part it was suggested that this problem, in terms of a “postcode lottery” for residents living in border areas, was not a new phenomenon within the health service. However, this did not mean that no action should be taken in an attempt to resolve it.

In order to address these issues and residents’ concerns the Board agreed that the Chief Executive of the Council should be asked to write a letter to the Chief Executive and Medical Director of NHS Arden Herefordshire and Worcestershire Area Team. In their capacity as the senior leads for the regional branch of NHS England it was suggested that they might be in a position to influence CCGs to work better together to resolve this problem to the benefit of patients. To help ensure that this letter was effective Members were urged to inform Officers of any particular examples that had been reported to them which might help to demonstrate the impact of this situation on patients.

Members also noted that at a future date it might be useful to invite the Chairman of Worcestershire Healthwatch to attend a meeting of the Board to discuss this matter.

ii) Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust: Update on CQC Unannounced Inspection

The Committee had received information about the Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trust’s response to the findings from the CQC’s unannounced inspection. This inspection had identified a number of concerns, including staffing levels and the patient flow within emergency departments. Progress had been achieved in relation to the majority of the issues that had been found by the CQC, though 2 areas were considered to be medium risk and would continue to be monitored.

b) Burcot Lodge Homeless Unit – Topic Proposal Form

The Chairman explained that a topic proposal form had been submitted by Councillor S. Shannon. In Councillor Shannon’s absence the Chairman provided a brief overview of the topic proposal. Members noted that Burcot Lodge, which provided emergency housing to vulnerable individuals at risk of homelessness, was due to be included as part of the sale of the Council House site. Councillor Shannon was keen to ensure that an alternative service was made available to residents in need of this service following the sale of the site. In the topic proposal form it had been suggested that this subject could be the focus of either a Task Group exercise or a Short, Sharp Review.

The Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Resources explained that Officers were aware of the issues surrounding Burcot Lodge. The Council House site had not yet been placed on the market as Officers were waiting until the move to Parkside had been completed. However, it was likely that any purchaser of the site would want to apply for planning permission and this could take additional time to process.

Officers had already considered the future provision of homeless services and the implications of the sale of Burcot Lodge. Discussions had been held with representatives of Bromsgrove District Housing Trust (BDHT) and a representative of the trust would continue to be involved in on-going discussions as part of an officer working group that had been established to investigate this matter further. No decisions had been taken, though alternative methods of service provision would be considered alongside the existing model and an initial decision would need to be reached by October 2015. Officers suggested that a Short, Sharp Review of this subject could be helpful to enable the Council to identify alternative models that might not otherwise be considered.

Members felt it would be useful to obtain further information about the current situation before determining whether to launch a Short, Sharp Review. It was therefore agreed that the Housing Strategy Manager be invited to attend the August meeting of the Board to present a briefing paper on the subject and Councillor Shannon should also be invited to attend this meeting.

c) General Work Programme Items

Officers reported that the backlog in planning applications data would be presented at the meeting of the Board in August 2015. The briefing concerning the work of the place team, which had been requested by Members, would be presented September meeting of the Board. The Head of Environmental Services, Environmental Services Managers and with a number of the operatives would be in attendance.

The Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Resources noted that a significant number of areas were due to be addressed in the finance training session, and she suggested that it might be more appropriate for 2 separate briefings to be delivered, with a bespoke session dedicated to budget scrutiny being delivered at the September meeting. As the finance briefing would be of interest to all Councillors, the Board agreed that it all Members would be invited to attend.

RECOMMENDED that the Chief Executive of Bromsgrove District Council write to the Chief Executive and Medical Director of NHS Arden Herefordshire and Worcestershire Area Team to urge them to take action to encourage Clinical Commissioning Groups to work together to ensure that residents living in border areas are not penalised in terms of patient care, with copies being sent to Healthwatch and the Chairman of the Clinical Commissioning Group..

RESOLVED that

(a) The Housing Strategy Manager be invited to attend the following meeting of the Board to present a briefing paper on the subject of the future plans for Burcot Lodge;

(b) The finance training be delivered in two stages in August and September; and

Supporting documents: