Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 3rd February 2015.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 3rd February 2015 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive from Members declarations as to disclosable pecuniary and other interests in relation to any Agenda Item.

Councillor Mrs P A Jordan declared a non-disclosable pecuniary interest in relation to Minute No. 14/96 as an employee of the Cambridgeshire Community Service based at Hinchingbrooke Hospital.

Councillor Mrs D Reynolds declared a non-disclosable pecuniary interest in relation to Minute No. 14/95 and 14/96 as an employee of a GP’s surgery.

A copy of the current Notice of Key Executive Decisions, which was published on 11th February 2015, is attached. Members are invited to note the Plan and to comment as appropriate on any items contained therein.

The Panel received and noted the current Notice of Key Executive Decisions (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) which had been prepared by the Executive Leader for the period 1st March to 31st July 2015.

Mr John Ellis (Commissioning and Contract Lead for Mental Health, Learning Disability and Substance Misuse, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group), Dr Emma Tiffin (GP Clinical Lead for Mental Health, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group) and Dr David Irwin (GP Mental Health Lead for the Huntingdonshire Local Commissioning Groups) will be in attendance to provide an update on mental health services.

The Chairman welcomed Mr J Ellis, Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Commissioning and Contract Lead, Dr E Tiffin, CCG Clinical Lead and Dr D Irwin, GP Mental Health Lead to the Panel. The Panel were given an update on Mental Health Services in Huntingdonshire. The following points were highlighted:

  The service model had been redesigned after consultation with GPs, service users and the public. The Cambridgeshire service was split into different areas, North, Central and South. There was a central point of access via the Advice and Referral Centre (ARC). Importantly GPs knew which service to access depending on the circumstances.

  The majority of referrals came from GPs, with the police as the second highest source of referrals.

  Priorities included a better referral system which involved referring patients in a short space of time.

  In 2015/16 National Planning Guidance identified specific priorities for mental health such as carer support and parity of esteem

  The CCG would also work on supporting patients once they had been discharged.

The Chairman asked what the waiting times were for referrals? In response the Panel was informed that for the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service there was no waiting time, for Step Three referrals the waiting time was variable and could be between four weeks and twelve weeks. For Children’s Mental Health there were long waiting times, however this was a national problem due to an upsurge in take up. The problem was being worked on.

A Member asked if the problems occurred after the initial stage as the CCG had stated that they were looking for referrals. In response it was clarified that that the space was with the IAPT service and other areas were different. The target for referrals to IAPT was a national target for which funding had been made available.

A question was raised by a Member regarding the number of patients from Huntingdon being sent to Peterborough and how they had been coping. The Panel was informed that in nine months 128 patients have been sent to Peterborough and the average stay was around seven days. The total number of patients that had been admitted was less than before because home treatment had been used more often. Dr Irwin stated that he felt that the current situation was much better for Huntingdonshire patients.

The issue of children’s mental health and in particular the length of time from referral to diagnosis was raised. As none of the representative present were experts in children’s mental health, they agreed to forward the question onto the children’s mental health team. The Panel discussed the possibility of inviting the children’s mental health team to a future meeting of the Panel.

A Member asked how the ARC was working? The Panel were informed that colleagues liked the locality aspect however the contingency planning team needed to collect data more effectively so that better use could be made of community services which in turn would take pressure off statutory services.

Mr Ellis, Dr Tiffin and Dr  ...  view the full minutes text for item 95.

Hisham Abdel-Rahman, Chief Executive of Hinchingbrooke Hospital, will present the Hospital’s Action Plan.

The Chairman welcomed Mr H Abdel-Rahman, Chief Executive Officer and Clinical Chairman, Mr M Burrows, Chair of the Hinchingbrooke Trust Board, Mrs D Fowler, Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Quality and Mr C Davidson, Franchise Manager, who had been invited to present the Hospital Action Plan.

The Chairman informed the Panel that the presentation would be in two sections: how Hinchingbrooke had got to its present position with questions and then the future for the Hospital with questions. The Panel then received a presentation which was led by Mr H Abdel-Rahman on the history of Hinchingbrooke and present position. The following points were highlighted:

  Hinchingbrooke had recorded high levels of patient satisfaction as well as low levels of serious incidents including zero “Never Events”.

  There had been particular problems with Accident and Emergency (A&E), as there had been nationwide.

  The Care Quality Commission (CQC) report highlighted that the areas of critical care, maternity and gynaecology and outpatients and diagnostic imaging were good, however the areas of A&E and Medical Care were inadequate.

  The CQC report on Critical Care highlighted that the environment of the department led to poorer patient experience and that at times there had been capacity issues. However Mr Abdel-Rahman informed the Panel that the new Critical Care unit would open in July and this would address these concerns.

The Chairman informed the Panel that questions had been submitted by Mr Lynch and Mr Sweeney, though some questions overlapped. The first question was why had no-one accepted responsibility and resigned following the CQC report? In response the Panel were told that the CQC had not inspected Hinchingbrooke because of concerns raised but because it was a low risk hospital. In addition the Chief Executive and Board would stay at the Hospital to work with the NHS Trust Development Authority to make the system work.

Mr Abdel-Rahman was asked, since his appointment, what proportion of his time he spent on the designated role of Chief Executive? Mr Abdel-Rahman told the Panel that he became Chief Executive last year and currently spent one day a week as a consultant.

Mr Abdel-Rahman and the Board were then asked if they had past and present shares in Circle holdings or held membership of a political party. Mr Abdel-Rahman responded saying that he had no shares in any company, he did not receive a salary from Circle and he was not affiliated to any political party. Mr Burrows, Mrs Fowler and Mr Davidson informed the Panel that none of them had shares in Circle and or were affiliated to a political party.

The Board were asked about the finances of the Hospital. In response the Board said that they were concerned about the finances of the trust and that the deficit in the budget was as a result of a number of factors including increases in staffing costs to cope with higher than expected emergency activity. The Hospital had been rated as a low risk organisation but there was a need  ...  view the full minutes text for item 96.

To consider the work programmes of the Economic and Environmental Well-Being Overview and Scrutiny Panels.

The Panel received and noted a report (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) which contained details of studies being undertaken by the Overview and Scrutiny Panels for Economic Well-Being and Environmental Well-Being.

To consider a report on progress of the Panel’s activities.

With the aid of a report (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Panel reviewed the progress of its activities since the last meeting. The Chairman advised Members that Ruth Rogers from Healthwatch would be attending the Panel meeting in April.

The Panel noted that scrutiny agenda plan included: the Hinchingbrooke improvement plan, Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision, a verbal update from the Affordable Housing Working Group and Chief Inspector Laura Hunt would attend to speak about closer working between the Police and Councillors at the April Panel meeting.

To scrutinise decisions taken since the last meeting as set out in the Decision Digest and to raise any other matters for scrutiny that sit within the remit of the Panel.

The 153rd edition of the Decision Digest was received and noted.