Name

Minute No. and Subject

Reason

Interest

Margaret Schwarz

86 – Budget and Performance – Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust

Non-Executive Director of Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust Board

Personal

Councillor Dr. Mahony

86 – Budget and Performance – Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust

87 - Budget and Performance – NHS Plymouth

GP

GP

Personal

Personal

(a)

with regard to minute 57(3), a response had now been received from the Peninsula Cancer Network and this would be circulated to Panel Members via e-mail after the meeting;

(b)

with regard to minute 66(1), a copy of the Dementia action plan remained outstanding.  This matter would be raised with the Chief Executive of NHS Plymouth later on the agenda;

(c)

with regard to 75(1), a response had now been received from the Community Services Department and this would be circulated to Panel Members via e-mail after the meeting.

(a)

the three-year lease on the eye infirmary would expire in March 2013 but it was hoped that the service would be relocated to Derriford Hospital some time between April and September 2012.  The building was no longer fit-for purpose and it made sense, both in financial and practical terms, to move the service to the Derriford site;

(b)

the changing landscape reflected the significant reduction in secondary care provision and move to increase self-care (e.g. pregnancy testing).  It was acknowledged that, in terms of secondary care, effectiveness would be dependent on decent housing standards;

(c)

infertility services would continue to be provided jointly.  Members may wish to pursue provision of this service further with NHS Plymouth;

(d)

Trusts would either become Foundation Trusts or be run by a Foundation Trust.  Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust would continue to pursue Foundation Trust status and was committed to submitting its application by March 2012.  This was, however, dependent on getting its finances in order;

(e)

meeting the healthcare needs of the citizens of Plymouth within the current financial climate was going to be the Hospital’s biggest challenge;

(f)

there had been slippage in follow-up appointments and work was ongoing to address this;

(g)

patient satisfaction and hospital performance data were collected in a number of ways, including –

• surveys undertaken by the hospital itself
• information provided through PALS
• independent reviews conducted by organisations such as Dr. Foster and the Care Quality Commission

(h)

there was also a strong culture of incident reporting among staff.  All serious incidents were reported publicly to the Trust’s Board which, more recently, had included the occurrence of six ‘never events’.  Four of these events had related to retained swabs for which investigations and action plans had been put in place.

(a)

with regard to the Sentinel tendering process, the Government had taken a very strong view that this service would be driven by clinicians from the bottom up.  There would not be a tendering process, however, there would be an ‘authorisation’ process, the rules of which had not yet been spelt out.  The final say on ‘authorisation’ would be by the NHS Commissioning Board;

(b)

the deficit forecast for the year end by Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust from month six onwards had been £14-£16m against an income of £38 million.  A break-even situation was now expected but the money would not be coming from the unplanned sum;

(c)

the Strategic Health Authority were strongly committed to ensuring that the GP consortia would not inherit any debt upon activation.  All parties would, therefore, have to work together to address any existing debt.  Any new debt incurred from 31 March would be the responsibility of the GP Consortia to manage.

(a)

the Adult Social Care budget of £73m was the largest single budget within the Council and was monitored regularly on a monthly basis;

(b)

the £4.1m of savings identified in the delivery plan, which had been considered as part of the budget scrutiny process, were all on target and projected to be delivered;

(c)

with regard to performance, the service –

• was performing well in respect of direct payments, and was in the top quartile when measured against the Council’s comparators
• could do better in terms of supporting carers
• was currently under-performing against the Learning Disabilities indicator linked to settled accommodation and those in employment
• was unsure whether the settled accommodation indicator would be continuing next year
• was expecting to reach the target of 5.9% in respect of those in employment by the end of the financial year

(d)

the service had been overspent last year however this deficit had been brought back into line through a series of panel reviews and regular monitoring;

(e)

a number of meetings had taken place with NHS Plymouth to discuss allocation of the winter pressure and reablement funding with some areas of spend already having been identified and agreed;

(f)

this Council was not intending to change its categorisation of need under the Fair Access to Care eligibility criteria.

(1)

with regard to the winter pressure and reablement fund, the panel be kept informed on where the money was being allocated;

(2)

with regard to minute 75(1), relevant extracts from the market review  undertaken in 2008 would be circulated to Panel Members via the Democratic Support Officer.