Agenda item

Mark Cammies, Estates and Facilities Director, Hinchingbrooke Healthcare NHS Trust will give a presentation on the Hinchingbrooke Health Campus.

Mr M Cammies, Estates and Facilities Director, Trust Board, Hinchingbrooke Healthcare NHS Trust presented the Hinchingbrooke Health Campus Development Plans to the Panel. Mr Cammies informed the Panel that the current site was 40 acres in size with the potential for development on an additional 12 acres of land currently owned by Cambridgeshire Constabulary. Members were informed that up to 2012 there was a lack of investment in Hinchingbrooke Hospital infrastructure, however since then £20m had been invested in the site including patient facing areas.

A number of development plans have been proposed, including: the building of staff residencies, medical student accommodation, the creation of a dementia and elderly care village, a health and well-being facility, private patient unit, support function building and a GP Surgery. In addition, the plan is to rationalise the size of the acute hospital element in order to have these additional care facilities.

In summary, Mr Cammies highlighted the following points:

• The Hinchingbrooke site was of strategic and locational importance for patients in the Cambridgeshire Health system;
• the demographic data profile clearly showed a need for investment in Older People’s services and facilities;
• Hinchingbrooke needed to adapt for future Health needs and to be economically sustainable;
• the site offers great opportunities for innovative models of care;
• the Health Campus opportunity has already showed the potential of various public bodies working together in a more collective and cohesive way; and
• this fits in with many of the national objectives and initiatives recently announced from the NHS England Chief Executive, Lord Carter and the Department of Health.

The Panel asked a question in relation to the aim of reducing the size of the acute hospital and what services will be reduced. In response, Mr Cammies stated that there was no agreement on what acute services would be impacted, although he confirmed bed numbers would be reduced. It was hoped that by focussing on specific acute services, the hospital would be in a form that was more sustainable.

A Member followed up by asking why Hinchingbrooke was reducing bed numbers when Huntingdonshire was a growing District. The Panel heard how the Treatment Centre was currently running at 65% capacity so there was room for efficiencies. The Panel continued to question whether the ageing population would have an impact on the number of beds in use. Mr Cammies responded by advising the Panel that the Trust and the patients themselves, did not want elderly people in acute beds where possible, but rather a different type of bed more suited to their clinical and social needs.

Following a question regarding the location of a GP surgery at Hinchingbrooke, Mr Cammies stated that the idea was in response to a suggestion from GPs, where they are reviewing “GP at scale” options.

In response to a question, the Panel were advised that the Trust was not in an ongoing partnership with the developers of the new residential development, but have had significant input with regards to the quality of the design of the buildings.

The Chairman requested that Mr Cammies provide regular updates to the Panel as and when progress was made.