Agenda item

Philip McNamara drew attention to his report regarding Newbury and District Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Quality Premium 2014/15. The Quality Premium was a payment from NHS England to CCGs, in order to reward improvement in the quality of services commissioned and for associated improvements in health outcomes and reductions of health inequalities. The Health and Wellbeing Board were being asked to note and approve the CCGs Quality Premium measures for assurance.

The forecast actual potential value of the reward was a maximum of £575k for Newbury and District CCG, which could be invested in improvements in the quality of services that patients received.

Criteria had to be met to receive the funding. There were six measures in total that covered a combination of five national indicators and one local priority.

Cathy Winfield reported that the Royal Berkshire Hospital were high reporters of medication errors  and there was concern regarding the national target on medication errors. A target was yet to be agreed with the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

Philip McNamara highlighted that the local measure was ‘Carers’. In 2013 the CCG had done very well on identifying carers and a large number of new carers had been identified.

Councillor Franks referred to paragraph 1.7 regarding the acute system and noted the possible risk to the CCG. Cathy Winfield reported that a report could be brought to the next meeting that explained this risk further.

RESOLVED that a report be brought back to the next meeting which elaborated on the risk to the CCG if its providers did not meet the NHS Constitution rights or pledges for patients as set out in the report under paragraph 1.7.

Councillor Franks referred to section two of the report, regarding the measure: Potential years of life lost from causes considered amenable to healthcare (adults, children and young people). Councillor Franks queried the figure of 3.2 percent and questioned whether this was achievable. Philip McNamara agreed that further work needed to be carried out around some of the figures.

Regarding measure two: Improving access to psychological therapies; Councillor Franks queried if this related to capacity or waiting times. Philip McNamara confirmed that the proposal related to activity.

Regarding measure five: Medication errors; Councillor Franks queried what proportion of the problem belonged to primary care. Dr Bal Bahia reported that as part of the annual appraisal process general practitioners were suppose to comment on occurrences of medication errors.

Councillor Graham Pask questioned if targets were agreed by NHS England or if they were negotiable. Philip McNamara reported that some of the measures were nationally driven and there was a package of measures that had to be achieved. There was however, much more control over the local measure on carers.

Rachael Wardell queried what proportion of the CCGs budget £572k represented. Cathy Winfield confirmed that this was small at about half a percent.  Rachael Wardell queried if there would be merit in breaking away from the Quality Premium system and the related bureaucracy, particularly when where was not total confidence the funding would be awarded.  This could possibly free up resources to accrue funding in other areas. Cathy Winfield stated that a lot of the information required was already collected, apart from for the local measure and therefore it did not make sense for the CCG to withdraw. Many of the areas also fit in with the CCGs overarching programme of work.

RESOLVED that the Board were happy to agree the paper subject to further work on the figures being undertaken.