(a)

his role as Chair was to challenge agencies and to seek assurance.  There was very good engagement across the city and at the quarterly board meetings they were now looking at themes and how they collectively keep people safe;

(b)

the Creative Solutions Forum reflects the exceptional leadership of different organisations across the city in particular around public health which highlighted a number of vulnerable people with acute and chronic drug and alcohol dependency who create a significant demand on services.  The Forum was created as an open space for agencies to meet and discuss these cases to try and achieve a successful resolution;

(c)

they commissioned Healthwatch to undertake extensive participation and engagement reviews to ensure that the Board  were better sighted on the ‘lived experience’ of users and carers involved in the safeguarding process;

(d)

they were looking at how to engage in a more preventative work to gain a better understating on vulnerability and safeguarding across all organisations to prevent people from being abused and/or at risk of being abused;

(e)

assurance sits at the heart of what the Board undertakes on behalf of the community and there was a need to find innovative ways to ensure that recommendations from a serious case review were being delivered and that the Board were making a difference.

(a)

the CQC visited the hospital in December 2018 to re-inspect progress against the two warning notices.  It was reported that progress was concluding and would shortly be receiving the draft report;

(b)

with regard to pharmacy and the capacity at a senior leadership level, it was reported that support had been provided to move the work programme forward and the team were now at establishment which was a significant achievement.   The Pharmacy Board would start meeting on a weekly basis from next week;

(c)

good progress had been made with diagnostic imaging but it was acknowledged that the changing of the culture would take some time;

(d)

with regard to the overall action plan, 43% of the actions were now complete and it was reported that they now have the funds to build the new Emergency Department;

(e)

there were challenges around mandatory training with a number of actions related to this which had resulted in a task and finish group to take this forward.

(f)

they were undertaking a piece of work to address whether the workforce within pharmacy was sufficient for the workload around dispensing and undertaking audits and checks.  They were developing a business case to address the future staffing arrangement within pharmacy;

(g)

the writing and dispensing of a prescription was complex and that patients that were fit for discharge in the morning would have to wait for their prescription to be signed off.   There was an in day delay which kept patients in hospital and pharmacy would have a part to play in that;

(h)

they do have challenges with the workforce and this was an on-going challenge for the hospital;

(i)

they highlighted to the CQC their concerns around the staff survey results in pharmacy when they visited.   The Chief Executive also had taken a huge interest in trying to resolve this;

(j)

guidance and discussions on Brexit was being handled centrally with the major pharmaceutical companies and they were not expected to make any special provision or stockpiling of medicines.

(a)

patients that had problems with parking would not fall into this category and would find them another appointment;

(b)

they follow national guidance in terms of the waiting list policy.  The waiting list policy had been scrutinised externally and they were confident that there won’t be any exceptions that would discriminate against any groups;

(c)

we try and give as much notice as possible for an appointment, always try and give patients at least 2 weeks’ notice;

(d)

it was important to have a good understanding of why patients DNA and they were keen to undertake research on how this cohort was made up and barriers to not attending;

(e)

they were  exploring alternatives to attending the hospital for an appointment such as taking outpatient appointment closer to the patient by using the Cumberland Centre or Mount Gould.