Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for inability to attend the meeting (if any).

An apology for inability to attend the meeting was received from Councillor Sheila Ellison.

Purpose: To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of this Panel held on 17^th January, 2012.

The minutes of the meeting held on 17^th January, 2012 were agreed as a true and correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any Declarations of Interest from Members.

Councillor Gwen Mason declared an interest in Agenda Items 5 and 6, but reported that, as her interest was personal and not prejudicial she determined to remain to take part in the debate and vote on the matter..

Purpose:  To receive an update from Jan Evans (Head of Service, Adult Social Care, West Berkshire Council) on the progress of NHS Continuing Health Care Programme.

 (Councillor Gwen mason declared a personal interest in Agenda item 5 by virtue of the fact that she was a member of the West Berkshire Disability Alliance. As her interest was personal and not prejudicial she determined to take part in the debate and vote on the matter).

Jan Evans (Head of Adult Social Care) presented an update report on NHS Continuing Health Care (CHC) which was attached as Appendix A to the agenda

Ms Evans stated that following the previous Health Scrutiny Panel meeting where the Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executives of NHS Berkshire had attended and answered questions, West Berkshire Council was continuing to review the processes being undertaken and where necessary identify where changes needed to take place.

This work was being led by Janet Golder, the CHC specialist worker who had undertaken a number of training and awareness raising sessions with staff and managers; identified and supported individual reviews and successfully challenged a number of cases to change payment from the local authority to the NHS. Janet had produced a review of where the NHS CHC process and operations were not adhering to CHC Direction and Guidance and this review had been discussed with South Central Health Authority (SCHA).

The Council and SCHA had agreed that the SCHA should commission an independent review of CHC by two senior managers with significant experience in this area. The other five Berkshire Local Authorities had also expressed concerns at the approach of the NHS and had agreed for WBC to take the lead in the review process. The review was aimed at looking at the application of CHC policies across the six local authority areas by NHS Berkshire; the implementation of Direction, National Framework and Practical Guidance and the compliance of the same; the application of eligibility criteria and the work of the CHC Panels. The review was expected to start in Apri2 2012 and the report should be available within two months of the review being completed.

The Chairman said that the Health Scrutiny Panel would await the outcome of the review and its recommendations.

Councillor Linden asked if the other local authorities had agreed to contribute to the costs of the CHC specialist worker and how long they would be employed for. Ms Evans stated that no contribution had been sought but that the post was classed in the ‘invest to save’ process and that savings had already been achieved. Ms Evans also confirmed that the employment contract was short term and was expected to end by end of financial year 2013-2014.

Ms Evans also reiterated that although GPs would hold future budgets they would still need to deliver the same CHC functions but there would be National Commissioning Boards in place to oversee specific areas of budgets and to performance manage the GPs. It was hoped that they would resolve disputes in operational policy in a timely fashion.

Councillor Boeck asked what the cost of the process review had been and what commitment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Purpose: To review the interim report on Dignity and Nutrition at the RBH by Tony Lloyd, Chair of West Berkshire LINk.

 (Councillor Gwen mason declared a personal interest in Agenda item 5 by virtue of the fact that she was a member of the West Berkshire Disability Alliance. As her interest was personal and not prejudicial she determined to take part in the debate and vote on the matter).

Tony Lloyd (Chair of West Berkshire Local Involvement Networks (LINKs)) presented a review of an interim report on Dignity and Nutrition at the Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH). Mr Lloyd said that the review had been undertaken as concern had been expressed by the Health Scrutiny Panel in July 2011 that there was a lack of information about the levels of dignity and nutrition at the RBH.  In addition, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) had undertaken a series of visits to 100 hospitals across England looking at these topics and the RBH was not included in these.

West Berkshire LINKs undertook to investigate these topics and provide an interim report in January 2012. The report had been brought forward from the previous HSP meeting as there had not been enough time to adequately review its findings.

Mr Lloyd stated that there had been an attempt to set up focus groups but as these had been poorly attended a questionnaire was designed in conjunction with the Princess Royal Trust and Crossroads and 250 copies were despatched. 51 completed questionnaires were returned. The majority of responses related to RBH (32), with the remainder related to Basingstoke (7), Swindon (4) and Oxford (2) and a variety of other hospitals. Mr Lloyd summarised the review findings saying that relatively few responses were highly critical of RBH and four out of five respondents thought care there was good. He also reported that between 5 and ten percent were not pleased with the quality of care. When respondents were asked if they would recommend RBH to others 85% stated they were likely or definitely prepared to do this. This matched with a RBH internal poll which was taken in January 2012 which showed a 95% satisfaction rate.

Mr Lloyd stated that the two main areas of concern at RBH were nutrition and information given to patients, this was repeated across the other hospitals but the RBH scoring was slightly better.

The Chairman asked if RBH had been asked for input for the questionnaire. Mr Lloyd said that the questionnaire had been put together by LINKs and the Princess Royal Trust and Nigel Owen of West Berkshire Council. He said that he had been in touch with RBH on six occasions to ask is they would be prepared to circulate anonymous questionnaires to patients on discharge but he had not had a reply.The Chairman suggested that the request should go to the decision makers at the hospital.

Mr Lloyd asked that Members should treat the results with caution as it represented a small sample of views and that the respondents were those discharged prior to December 2010, so any issues might have changed. The Chairman asked if  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Purpose: To consider and review as necessary the Work Programme for the Panel as at Year end 2011/12 and for consideration of additions to the Work Programme from the Members prior to referral to the OSMC for the Work Programme for 2012/13.

The Chairman drew the meetings attention to the updated work programme with item reference OSMC/11/102 still awaiting an update.