To receive any declarations of interest from Committee members in relation to items on this agenda.

There was one declaration of interest:

To receive any reports on business which, in the opinion of the chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

Jo Turl (NHS Devon ICB), Nigel Acheson (NHS Devon ICB), and Matt Ward (Head of Strategic Development Projects, PCC) delivered an update to the Committee regarding the ‘West End Hub Programme Delivery’, and highlighted the following points-

a)     The board paper within the Committee’s agenda pack would be going to NHS Devon’s public board on Wednesday 15 March 2023 for discussion and a decision;

b)    Since last attending this Committee, Jo Turl and the ICB had written to the Health Secretary, Lord Markham, to identify the future of the Cavell project and any possible solutions to the funding issues. This included seeking national capital to support the Cavell project, and potential to combine the project with the Community Diagnostic project which was underway in Plymouth. A formal response had not yet been received;

c)     While NHS Devon had always stated that the Cavell project was reliant on national capital, they had since explored all options locally to support this project too;

d)    All of the 6 national pioneer sites of the Cavell project had been written to by the National Cavell team, asking them to stand down. A national business case had now been prepared for submission to the treasury, hopefully for funding in the next spending review;

e)     An options analysis had been undertaken, but had unfortunately identified that it was currently unaffordable to support the project from local NHS Devon monies. NHS Devon had received an offer from Plymouth City Council to borrow the capital required however, NHS Devon could not afford the interest repayments on this loan, given their current deficit position;

f)      The people most affected by this would be the 3 GP practices and their patients, who had been poised to move into the West End Hub on its completion. NHS Devon were committed to working with these practices, “whatever happens”, to ensure there were sustainable and high quality primary care facilities across the city, and meetings with those affected had been scheduled.

g)     While no decisions had yet been made, the recommendation to be taken to NHS Devon’s board was regrettably that:

                         i.     ‘The Board commends the work which all partners have undertaken through the Cavell Project Board to achieve the completion of the Full Business Case’;

                        ii.     ‘The Board supports the view of the Executives that, given the change in the national position on capital resources available, at present we cannot support any option that takes the Plymouth scheme forward at this stage. As we are in SOF4, and are facing a £49.5m overspend, our options are severely limited at this stage, unless or until the national position on capital for Cavell schemes changes (Option 6)’;

                      iii.     ‘Continue to work with the practices to mitigate risks to the practices in the short-term. We will also work with the practices to identify all risks and opportunities as part of the PCN Estates Toolkit process’.

h)    All of NHS Devon’s capital was committed for the next year, and due to a backlog in critical and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

To consider passing a resolutionunder Section 100A(4) ofthe Local Government Act1972 to exclude the press and public from the meetingfor the following item of business on the groundsthat it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information asdefined inparagraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, asamended by the Freedom ofInformation Act 2000.

There were no items of exempt business.