1.    to recommend to PHNT that user groups are given adequate notification of consultation and site visits to allow full engagement;

2.    that the Local Involvement Network distribute surveys to the Panel and the Trust;

3.    to recommend to the Cabinet Member for Transport that Plymouth City Council increase marketing activity with regard to the George Park and Ride for access to the Hospital;

4.    congestion surrounding the Derriford hospital site and sustainable transport links to all health care sites across the city are reviewed by the Cabinet Member for Transport and a written report provided to the panel;

5.    that PHNT return to the panel in April to provide an update regarding changes to car parking provision.

(a)   no proposals regarding pay and conditions would be published until January 2013 at the earliest;

(b)  the Pay Consortium would build into proposals the results of national negotiations;

(c)   there had been a number of open meetings for discussions with staff to address the myths and anxiety caused by the membership of the Consortium;

(d)  a Staff Health and Wellbeing Steering Group had been formed, consisting of representatives from staff-side and management, including both the nursing and clinical bodies in the Trust. The group would work towards the development of an effective Employee Health Strategy.  Sickness absence management would form part of that work;

(e)  the trust continued to review its contracts in an effort to find efficiency savings.

1.    to welcome the Trust’s response to the recommendations of the 26 September 2012, in particular the engagement with Plymouth University and the establishment of the Staff Health and Wellbeing Steering Group;

2.    that the Trust provide a written report in January on days lost through sickness absence.  The report would include details of targets, indicators and possible savings;

3.    that the Trust provide the panel with any developments regarding the South West Pay Consortium at the earliest opportunity.

(a)   the Trust had an excellent safety culture and had worked hard to promote it throughout the Trust. The Trust had seen an increase in the reporting of incidents and the level of harm had decreased due to the climate of openness and reporting;

(b)   all actions taken following the report of a “Never Event” were to ensure the wellbeing of the patients, family, carers and members of staff.  Investigations were undertaken using root cause analysis by the Trust which was standard national practice;

(c)   extensive pieces of work were being undertaken in general operative care and  diabetes support.  Two specialist diabetes nurses had been employed and experts deployed across the organisation;

(d)  the Trust took the events extremely seriously and were focusing attention on all aspects of patient safety with a view to improve them. The events had been reported to the Care Quality Commission and the trust continued to work closely with them to improve patient safety.

(e)  the World Health Organisation checklist was adhered to, the retained foreign object was not on the checklist and as such was not counted in and out. This object would now be included on the checklist and the learning from the event shared nationally;

(f)    data from other organisations regarding never events was not available and would not be an appropriate comparison due to the different work that Trusts undertook;

(g)   the Trust was working hard to make sure that issues of underperformance were always raised.  There was a good working relationship with the Care Quality Commission and the Trust would be looking to deliver beyond nationally accepted best practice;

(h)  the accountability for “Never Events” remained with the Chief Executive and the Medical Director.  There had been no disciplinary actions against staff involved in these events as there had been no evidence of intent to harm;

(i)    error rates could increase if staff were fatigued, the Trust had built physical and mental barriers within processes to help prevent incidents from occurring.  However, hospital procedures relied on humans and there was always the possibility of human error;

(j)    Trust performance reports indicated that the incident reporting rate was well above the national rate of reporting;

(k)  non-executive board members scrutinised all serious adverse events in private session.

Agreed –