Agenda and minutes

County Councillor Berry replaced County Councillor Snape, County Councillor Serridge replaced County Councillor Pate, and Councillor Brown replaced
Councillor Mein representing Preston City Council.

No apologies were received.

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.

County Councillor Berry declared a non-pecuniary interest in item 4 that her daughter was employed by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust and was currently contracted to Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.

Councillor Hilton declared a non-pecuniary interest in Item 4 that he was in employment at Wrightington, Wigan, and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust and provided a diagnostic service to the vascular surgeons at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held on 1 February 2022 be confirmed as an accurate record.

Jerry Hawker, Senior Responsible Officer and Integrated Care System Executive Director for the Lancashire and South Cumbria New Hospitals Programme, Rebecca Malin, Programme Director for the Lancashire and South Cumbria New Hospitals Programme, and Jane Kenny, Lead Nurse for the Lancashire and South Cumbria New Hospitals Programme attended the meeting and provided an update on the current position of the Lancashire and South Cumbria New Hospitals Programme since they last attended Health Scrutiny Committee on 23 March 2021. A recap of the background and the context was also provided. The key purpose was to share the shortlist of options for new hospital facilities.

Comments and queries from the committee were as follows:

·  On the feasibility of the option to have two new hospitals to replace
Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Royal Preston Hospital (new sites), there had been close engagement with the government during the shortlisting process, but feasibility could not be confirmed at this early stage. However, as the new build option was on the shortlist, it was seen as an indicator of an agreement to continue to pursue and explore those options and there would be more discussion with the government over a six to nine month period regarding capital affordability. It was noted that cost in terms of capital was only seen as one element and a strong part of the development of options was exploring benefits in improving efficiency and productivity, and at a wider socio-economic level. The government had not yet provided a maximum amount of capital, although they had been clear that they were looking for return on investment as the most significant argument that the New Hospitals Programme must deliver to demonstrate value for money for taxpayer's investment. Indicative capital had become less of a focus than demonstrating the return on investment. When the New Hospitals Programme team undertook the shortlist, they maintained options which gave them a broad spectrum of capital revenue potential and there had been significant financial analysis carried forward around return on benefit.

·  If there were two new hospitals built on new sites, services could be maintained and have a short, phased transition across sites. With rebuilding on the existing sites, phasing would become a more critical factor as there would be more costs and considerations to take into account.

·  Assurance was provided that the two hospitals would be built and ran by NHS organisations and the two NHS trusts were committed to operating the services. With regard to the construction of the two hospitals, the New Hospitals Programme were working with the Local Enterprise Partnership to ensure local businesses had the maximum opportunity to be involved in whichever successful option of the building programme went ahead. The programme was also working with the government with a view to enable local companies to be involved in both construction and ancillary services.

·  In terms of the impact on other local hospitals and in particular Chorley and South Ribble Hospital, it was reported that services continued to be invested  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Jackie Moran, Head of Quality Performance and Contracting, NHS West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group provided the committee with an update on the Shaping Care Together (SCT) Programme.

Members were informed that SCT was run by NHS leaders across West Lancashire, Formby, and Southport, which sought to ‘futureproof’ the local NHS by looking at new ways of working and new ways of delivering services.

It was reported that since January 2021, SCT listened to the thoughts, opinions, and ideas from residents, patients, staff, and stakeholders. The programme received more than 2,500 responses through an online questionnaire and hard copy feedback forms, which was followed up by a series of online and face-to-face in-depth discussion groups with local community organisations and delivered electronic newsletters and information videos about the programme.

Some of the main themes which emerged from the engagement included:

·  Concerns around the accessibility of primary care services

·  A need to focus more on preventative measures and use community services better to help patients before they present to hospital

·  Some issues around public transport in certain areas

·  Staffing levels and the recruitment and retention of key staff needs to be improved

·  A need to improve patient journeys and support patients to better navigate their own care.

An updated version of the presentation provided at Appendix A is set out in the minutes.

Comments and queries from the committee were as follows:

·  It was acknowledged by the SCT team that there were lessons to be learnt from St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust at Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals NHS Trust, in terms of community outreach services.

·  It was noted that from 1 July 2022, West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group would be abolished, and the services should become part of Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB). The SCT programme would also come under the Cheshire and Mersey ICB, with input from Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB.

·  On the transparency of the Travel and Transport Advisory Group, the SCT team would welcome input and involvement from members of the county council.

·  It was recognised that West Lancashire residents travelled to Liverpool for specialist one-off care, with 80% of secondary care referrals into Liverpool hospitals. The SCT team would undertake a detailed analysis at the end of the engagement phase to know more about how travel times and accessibility affects different parts of the West Lancashire population.

·  In terms of timescales, the SCT team aimed to have a shortlist of options ready by May 2022. Their next steps would then be to have a pre-consultation business case prepared and submitted to NHS England by September/October 2022, to seek approval to move to formal consultation. The team would be looking to have reached the approval stage by the end of the 2023/24 year, with work starting in 2025. It was suggested that the SCT Programme returns to the Health Scrutiny Committee alongside the New Hospitals Programme, to be considered at the same time. It was acknowledged that if the New Hospitals Programme  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The committee considered a report containing an overview of matters presented and considered by the Health Scrutiny Steering Group at its meeting held on 9 February 2022. No queries were raised by the committee.

Resolved: That the report of the Health Scrutiny Steering Group as presented, be received.

The committee received a report which provided information on the work programme for the Health Scrutiny Committee.

The Chair asked members of the committee that if they wished to contribute to the work programme for 2022/23 to inform Gary Halsall, Senior Democratic Services Officer know in advance of the work programming workshop to be held in June 2022.

It was noted that members would prefer there to be one extra Health Scrutiny Committee meeting to be held during the next municipal year between March and June 2023. The Chair informed the committee that he was aware of a review of Overview and Scrutiny function and the request could be noted as part of the review.

Resolved: That the Health Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2021/22 be noted.

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.

There were no items of urgent business.

The next meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee will be held on Tuesday 28 June 2022 at 10.30am in County Hall, Preston.

It was noted the next meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee would take place on Tuesday 28 June 2022 at 10:30am in County Hall, Preston.