Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillors Abdul Khan and Kath Pratt.

Councillor Eamonn Higgins acted as substitute representative for Councillor Khan. 

The Chair, Councillor Glen Harrison declared a personal interest in agenda item 5 as he was employed by Mersey Care. A standards Committee held in January 2017 had provided the Chair with a dispensation for the next four years to speak on this topic but not vote.

To submit the Minutes of the Communities and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 25^th October 2017 for approval as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Communities and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 25^th October 2017 were submitted for approval as a correct record.  

Resolved                               -   That the Minutes be received and approved as a correct record.

To receive a presentation on the ‘Care Navigation Pilot’ from East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group.

A presentation was given on the Care Navigation Pilot delivered by East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group.

The information presented explained what care navigation was and why it was introduced into local health services. Details also included who could be a care navigator, the types of questioning involved by NHS staff, extending it into other primary care services and the range of benefits.

A detailed summary of the pilot was provided along with the next steps of the process.

Research for the pilot had been gained via on site visits to West Wakefield and negative stories in the media about the scheme were discussed at length and answered.

A range of advanced questions had been submitted by Members before the meeting and a number of answers were provided to these questions asked by the Chair.

·         When the pilot was announced, there was a largely negative public reaction. How have the public reacted during the pilot?

There had been no negative feedback from patients in the Hyndburn area to date and patient participation groups had been attended for consultation purposes.

·         Have you identified any faults during the pilot, and if so, have you corrected these?

Website pages had been looked at to identify any grey areas or gaps and a call management system had been installed at some practices along with automated arrival screens.

·         How are issues regarding privacy resolved when patients are asked for information about their symptoms / condition?

There are already protocols in place to deal with privacy issues and telephone conversations are normally conducted in a back office away from the frontline reception.

·         What does the care navigator training entail? How have staff reacted to their new roles as care navigators?

·         Is the system working? E.g. how many GP appointments have been freed up as a result of the care navigation pilot?

It had been three months since Hyndburn went live along with Rossendale and the Ribble Valley. Monthly data was collected and verbal feedback locally had been positive.

·         There was a recent national news article which stated that a third of GP surgeries plan to close to new patients. How accurate is this figure and how many Hyndburn based surgeries are planning to close the registration of new patients?

Resolved                           (1)   That the presentation on Care Navigation by East Lancashire CCG be noted by the Overview and Scrutiny Communities and Wellbeing Committee;

                                            (2)   That Councillors are nominated to attend the Care Navigation Training with dates, times and locations to be confirmed.

To receive a presentation by NHS England on Transforming Care. 

Andrew Simpson and Lesley Patel, gave a presentation to update Members on NHS England’s Transforming Care service.

Previously the Committee had received the last presentation from NHS England in February 2017. Meetings had since taken place in relation to the consultation for the proposed redesign of learning disability and autistic spectrum disorder services in the North West region.

The proposed redesign of services had direct implications for Mersey Care, based at the

Whalley site (Formally Calderstones). NHS England’s preferred option after consultation

involved the removal of both medium and low secure services from the Calderstones

location.

A range of advanced questions had been submitted by Members before the meeting and a number of answers were provided to these questions asked by the Chair.

·         What progress has been made since the decision was taken to move all low and medium secure services off the Mersey Care Whalley Site?

·         Has work started on the Medium Secure Unit yet?

·         Has a location been identified for the Low Secure Unit yet?

·         How many patients have been resettled in the community from Mersey Care Whalley? Have any of these patients been readmitted?

·         Are there plans to use the low secure unit, which was recently built, for other health services, if not by NHS England then by the CCG or anyone else? If not, what is planned for the site?

Timescales for changes had been moved back until 2020, with a commitment to close the site by then but to keep patients safe over that period of time.

Resolved                           (3)   That the presentation on Transforming Care by NHS England be noted by the Overview and Scrutiny Communities and Wellbeing Committee;

                                            (4)   That NHS England give serious consideration to an appropriate location for the Low Secure Unit. Moving the site to Maghull (or somewhere of similar distance) would likely lead to the inability to retain the current skilled staff at Mersey Care based on the Whalley Site.  This could lead to a number of redundancies in the East Lancashire area and potential recruitment issues for the new site.