Agenda and minutes

Councillor John Robinson (Durham County Council) was appointed as Chair of the Committee.

Councillor L Hall (Stockton Borough Council) was appointed as Vice Chair of the Committee.

None.

None recorded.

To receive and approve the minutes of the meeting of the Durham Darlington and Teesside, Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby STP Joint Health Scrutiny Committee held on 17 January 2018 – Copy attached.

Agreed that the minutes of the meeting held on 17 January 2018 be confirmed and signed by the Chair as a correct record subject to the inclusion of more detailed reference to the discussions that had taken place in respect of the development of a 3 centre acute hospitals model and that an associated press release on this be published jointly within a reasonable timescale.

The Committee will receive a verbal update from Alan Foster, Durham Darlington and Teesside Hambleton Richmondshire and Whitby STP lead officer which will cover the following issues:-

·                     The future of Sustainability and Transformation Plans;

·                     Development of an Integrated Care Partnership/System/Network and what this means in relation to the STP;

·                     Progress updates on the STP workstreams including the Better Health Programme/Acute Hospitals Model development.

Councillor Robinson referenced a recent press article in the Northern Echo which detailed discussions that had taken place at a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council regarding the future of health service provision at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough; University Hospital North Tees, Stockton and Darlington Memorial Hospital. He stated the article suggested that key services would be retained at Darlington Memorial Hospital and this had raised issues with the DDTHRW STP Joint OSC members given their previous request for appropriate communications to be issued by the STP lead/Commissioners in respect of the development of the three acute hospitals model that had been discussed at the Committee’s meeting in January 2018.

In response, Mr Foster indicated that he had been disappointed in the press coverage on this issue and suggested that this may have been inaccurate. He stated that the press statement asked for by the Committee in January had not been issued because of difficulties that had occurred in getting all representatives to sign up to any press release. He introduced Mary Bewley, Head of Communications and Engagement, North of England Commissioning Support to members and indicated that an updated position statement in respect of the development of the STP/Better Health Programme and Integrated Care System would be published on 14 June 2018. This will be circulated to Local Authority Chief Executives; Directors of Adult and Children’s services and Directors of Public Health along with Health Scrutiny members and Health and Wellbeing Board representatives.

Mr Foster then gave a presentation to members which set out proposals for the development of an Integrated Care System for the North East and Cumbria which included associated leadership structures and governance proposals.

Mr Foster reported upon the context for the NHS within the North East and Cumbria, referencing the fact that the NHS Cycle is driven by poorer population health as a starting point leading to an overdependence on hospitals. NHS Funding is drawn away from prevention and preventative services which stops the causes of poor health from being addressed. Ill health within the region also contributes to worklessness, poor productivity and lower economic growth. The associated opportunity cost is poorer health outcomes in areas such as life expectancy at birth; smoking related deaths; under 75 mortality from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

In setting out the case for change, Mr Foster stated that the NE and Cumbria had a long established geography with highly interdependent clinical services. The vast majority of patient flows stay within the area and there is a history of joint working and a unanimous commitment from NHS organisations to establish an Integrated Care System across the North Eats and Cumbria. However, he stressed that the 2012 Health and Social Care Act had led to fragmentation across the health system making system wide decision making difficult. This coupled with significant financial gaps, service sustainability issues and poor health outcomes had led to further challenges.

The proposed changes would see the replacement of three STPs across the North East and Cumbria  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

None.

None.

To be confirmed.

To be confirmed.

The meeting ended at 3.45 pm.