Agenda and minutes

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Venue: Committee Room 'C' - The Duke of Lancaster Room, County Hall, Preston. View directions

Contact: Wendy Broadlley  Email:  wendy.broadley@lancashire.gov.uk

Media

Webcast: View the webcast

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were presented on behalf of District Councillors A Mahmood (Pendle) and K Molineaux (Hyndburn)

 

County Councillor Alan Schofield replaced County Councillor David Smith, County Councillor Cynthia Dereli replaced County Councillor Nicki Hennessey, County Councillor Kim Snape replaced County Councillor Mohammed Iqbal, and Councillor Peter Wilson replaced Councillor Hasina Khan.

 

2.

Disclosure of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

Minutes:

None disclosed.

3.

Minutes of the Meeting Held on 15th March 2016 pdf icon PDF 70 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the Health Scrutiny Committee meeting held on the 15th March 2016 were presented and agreed.

 

Resolved: That the minutes of the Health Scrutiny Committee held on the 15th March 2016 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

4.

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust - Chorley A&E update pdf icon PDF 90 KB

Presented by: Karen Partington, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Chair welcomed Karen Partington, Chief Executive, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Jan Ledward, Chief Officer, Chorley and South Ribble and Greater Preston Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Dr Dinesh Patel, Greater Preston CCG to the meeting to provide the Committee with the rationale for the decision to temporarily close the A&E department at Chorley Hospital and explain what the new temporary arrangements would be.

 

A PowerPoint presentation was delivered by Karen, a copy of which is appended to the minutes

 

A summary of the main points are outlined below.

 

Background:

·  Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust originally supported the application of the locum cap which was to encourage locums to apply to substantive posts

·  The cap was reported to be not in place in Scotland, Wales and Ireland

·  Recruitment into emergency medicine has begun to improve but were finding that nationally, 50% of doctors by year 4 were choosing not to continue in their roles

·  There continues to be a reliance on locums to support services and locums were reported to occasionally only provide 24 hours' notice to leave

 

Recruitment:

·  Now advertising vacancies through non-framework agencies as well as framework agencies.  (Framework agencies would complete all of the compliance checks prior to recruitment but for non-framework agencies, checks were required to be completed by the Trust)

·  North West Deanery have received a request from the Trust for evidence around allocation numbers of trainees to ensure the Trust are not being disproportionately disadvantaged

 

Service impact:

·  There was no reported impact on NWAS to date

·  An ambulance handover nurse was in place to alleviate previous challenges recognised on the timely transference of patients from the ambulances

·  Monitoring of Wigan, Bolton and East Lancs hospitals indicated minimal additional activity so far.  NWAS have confirmed that there were no patients taken to Southport and Ormskirk Hospital but would look to confirm status of their walk in patients

·  Emergency admissions have been equalised across the two sites with GP's referrals to Chorley, and emergencies through Emergency Department to Preston

·  So far there have been no significant fluctuations in attendance at RPH

 

Current position on recruitment:

·  Six gaps currently in the staff rota for Chorley Hospital A&E

·  Three locums have been booked for a period of supervision and trial before offering substantive posts

·  An additional two more locums booked and awaiting start dates 

·  One long term locum had already advised they were not available to work in  May and June

·  There have been 37 CV's reviewed and rejected as they did not meet the essential criteria with a further 17 CV's in the pipeline

 

Members were invited to make comments and raise questions and a summary of the main points arising from the discussion is set out below:

 

Members raised strong concerns around the staffing issues highlighted in the presentation and sought reassurances on what Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust were planning to do differently in the future and what the timescales to reopen were.  Members were advised that there was no information currently on timescales  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Report of the Health Scrutiny Committee Steering Group pdf icon PDF 90 KB

Presented by: Wendy Broadley

Additional documents:

Minutes:

On 8 February the Steering Group met with officers from Lancashire County Council regarding mental health services and officers from East Lancashire CCG to discuss changes to services for adults with learning disabilities. A summary of the meeting can be found at Appendix A.

 

Resolved: That the report of the Steering Group be received

 

6.

Work Plan pdf icon PDF 82 KB

Presented by: Wendy Broadley

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Appendix A to the report now presented set out a draft work plan for both the Health Scrutiny Committee and its Steering Group, including current Task Group reviews.

 

Committee Members were reminded that a planning session has been organised for the 9th May 2016 to determine the work plan for the next 12 months.

 

Resolved: That the work plan be noted

 

7.

Recent and Forthcoming Decisions pdf icon PDF 86 KB

Minutes:

The Committee's attention was drawn to forthcoming decisions and decisions recently made by the Cabinet and individual Cabinet Members in areas relevant to the remit of the Committee, in order that this could inform possible future areas of work.

 

Recent and forthcoming decisions taken by Cabinet Members or the Cabinet can be accessed here:

 

http://council.lancashire.gov.uk/mgDelegatedDecisions.aspx?bcr=1

 

Resolved: That the report be received

 

8.

Urgent Business

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

 

Minutes:

There was no urgent business.

9.

Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee will be held on Tuesday 14th June 2016 at 10.30am, Cabinet Room C, County Hall, Preston.

Minutes:

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Tuesday 14th June 2016 at 10.30am, Cabinet Room C, County Hall, Preston