Meeting documents

The purpose of this item is for Committee Members to evaluate the progress of Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust’s (BHT) pilot around developing care in the community, with Marlow and Thame Community Hospitals being developed as community hubs.

In February 2017, representatives from BHT attended the HASC Select Committee meeting to brief Members on the proposed 6 month pilot.

Attendees:

Neil Dardis, Chief Executive

Papers attached:

Copy of the proposal (as background)

Report from BHT (to follow)

Outcome:

For Committee Members to evaluate the community hubs pilot based on the key performance indicators, including those included in the original proposal document (as stated below).

Over the next six months, BHT will:

-          double the number of outpatient appointments offered at Marlow and Thame

-          see 350 patients through the one-stop frailty assessment clinic

-          provide intermediate care to over 3000 people

-          avoid almost 300 hospital admissions

-          manage almost 20,000 referrals through the single point of access.

The Chairman welcomed Dr T Kenny, Medical Director (Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust) and Dr M Thornton, Clinical Director (FedBucks).  They were also joined by Ms L Patten, Chief Officer (Aylesbury Vale and Chiltern CCGs) and Mr N Dardis, Chief Executive (BHT).

The following main points were made during the presentation:

·         The pilot had been running for 6 months so the figures reported were for a 5 month period.

·         600,000 patient contacts were made outside of the Hospital annually.

·         £1m had been invested to expand the community services.

·         The Hospital Trust was working very closely with all its partners to develop the community services model, with GPs playing a vital role.

·         Prevention and early intervention were key in developing the community hubs.

·         There was general recognition amongst local GPs that they could influence the plans for the community hubs and an example was given around whether to have ultrasound or x-ray provision at the hubs and GPs were consulted as part of the decision-making.

During discussion, the following questions were asked and comments made:

·         In response to a question about public engagement, Dr Kenny explained that the engagement process was ongoing and did not rely on just one event.  A series of events had taken place and attendees were asked for their ideas of what they wanted to see in a community hub and from that, a number of themes had been developed.

·         A Member commented that it was encouraging to see that Healthy Minds were part of the services available at the community hubs.

·         Concern was expressed about whether the hubs were tackling health inequalities and whether the services were being accessed by all groups within a local community.

·         In response to a question about additional financial resources being made available for the hubs, Dr Kenny reported that £1m had been invested in the hubs.

·         A Member suggested that the Stakeholder Engagement Group used Facebook to increase its engagement with the public.

·         Being able to provide chemotherapy to patients closer to home would be a key benefit of the hubs.

·         Parking was still recognised as a major problem at the Community hub sites.

·         In response to a question about stress levels, Dr Kenny agreed to look at including staff absence due to stress as one of the staff indicators.

Action: Dr Kenny

·         Dr Kenny agreed to report back to the stakeholder engagement group on the terminology used to describe some of the services, for example, frailty clinics, the Falls service.  More punchy and positive terminology was suggested.

Action: Dr Kenny

·         Members agreed that a geographical breakdown of where the patients come from who were using the Community hubs would be a useful inclusion in the final end of pilot report.

Action: Dr Kenny

RESOLVED:

The Committee AGREED to form a Task & Finish Group to review the report in full and to draft a response to the Hospital Trust to help inform the final report on the pilot scheme, due in March 2018.

The full discussion can be viewed on the webcast.