TEES VALLEY HEALTH SCRUTINY JOINT COMMITTEE
20TH JANUARY 2014
PRESENT:-
Representing Darlington Borough Council:
Councillors Newall and Taylor
Representing Hartlepool Borough Council:
Councillor Fisher and Shields
Representing Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council:
Councillor Carling
Representing Middlesbrough Borough Council
Councillors Loughborough and Junier (Vice Councillors Cole and Dryden)
Representing Stockton-On-Tees Borough Council:
Councillors Javed(Chair) Mrs Wilburn, Mrs Womphrey.
APOLOGIES – Cllrs Mrs H. Scott(Darlington Borough Council), Cole, Dryden, Pearson(Middlesbrough Council) and Wall(Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council).
OFFICERS – E Pout(Middlesbrough Borough Council), A Metcalfe(Darlington Borough Council), Karen Graves(Darlington Borough Council) J Stevens (Hartlepool Borough Council) P Mennear and K Wannop (Stockton Borough Council)
EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIVES – Cameron Ward (NHS England Area Team)
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST –
Cllr Mohammed Javed declared a disclosable pecuniary interest as he was employed by Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust. Cllr Javed had been granted a dispensation in this regard.
MINUTES – 9th December 2013
AGREED – That the Minutes be approved.
Update from Durham, Darlington and Tees Area Team
The Committee received an update from a member of the Area Team with regard to the first year’s operation of the local Area Team. The main information provided included:
- NHS England’s Role including Department of Health mandate to improve outcomes, improve health, reduce inequalities and improve the quality of healthcare.
- All area teams had the same core functions including oversight of the commissioning system, responsibility for commissioning primary care, emergency planning, and system oversight. Local Area Teams were buying in some support from commissioning support units.
- Call to Action national engagement exercise with patients, public, partners and staff to discuss major challenges facing the NHS over the next 10 years.
- Better Care Fund previously known as Service Transformation Fund was looking to spend money to help reduce pressures by allocating money to areas such as social care and prevention.
- NHS England also hosted Clinical Senates which were made up of thirty clinicians that advised on service reconfigurations and strategic plans.
Members made the following points/comments/questions:
- It was noted that NHS England’s mandate did not specifically reference services being ‘cheaper’ but there was an expectation that quality should improve. The reconfiguration of stroke care in London was given as an example and this has saved around 400 lives a year in London. Members requested evidence of this figure.
- The NHS funding allocations for 2014-15 were discussed. It was outlined that the funding formula had changed and deprivation counted for less than before. All areas had seen an increase however some areas in other parts of England had seen greater increases due to their population increases and age. The Committee felt that Money should be distributed per person per capita and deprivation should have a bearing on the funding available. The Committee requested a breakdown of funding by English region.
- The Area Team chaired the sub-regional Quality Surveillance Group which has been set up to monitor the quality of local NHS care. The Group included CQC, Monitor and CCGs. Members queried how this would work and it was noted that it would enable all inspectors and regulators to share information much better than before.
- Reference was made to a suggestion that when Panorama cameras were recently present in North Tees & Hartlepool Foundation Trust hospital A and E they were not seeing a normal day as there were more staff and beds available than usual. This would be investigated further by the Area Team.
- It had been reported anecdotally that it was easier to go to A&E than to wait for an appointment with a GP. More was being done for GPs to be more responsive for patients.
- More need to be done to attract staff to work in the area to fill the gaps in recruiting staff. It was stated that more GPs and nursing staff were in training than ever before but more needed to be done.
- Although there were costs to backfill the work of clinicians being involved in CCG commissioning, it was thought that this added much value to the NHS.
- Members stated that Health and Wellbeing Boards needed to be representative of the areas they served. Area Team would examine into how each HWB undertook engagement work.
- Members felt that the Call to Action survey could have been designed better and this would be taken on board.
The Committee thanked Cameron for his presentation.
AGREED – that the information requested be provided.
Any urgent items which in the opinion of the Chair can be considered.
Cllr Fisher raised the issue regarding the charity Bloodrun EVS. The charity does valuable work in transporting blood and medical supplies to hospitals. Due to financial reasons the charity could close unless money is received. Cllr Fisher would be sending a letter to Members from all Tees Valley authorities to see what can be done.