Agenda item

Teams around the practice, Community Services contract and review of Community Hospitals in County Durham

Minutes:

The Committee received a presentation from the Director of Integration that gave an update on teams around the patient, community services contract and community hospitals in County Durham (for copy see file of Minutes).

 

The presentation highlighted the following:-

 

·         The Integrated Model

·         Teams around patients

·         Our ambition

·         Progress to date

·         Proposed governance structure for the Integrated Care System

·         Next steps – including community contract, integrated senior management arrangements, mobilisation work and community hospitals

 

In relation to Community Hospitals, the Director of Integration advised that this was an important part of the community services offer and the role and function needed to be addressed.  A reduced bed base had in Weardale, Sedgefield and Richardson Hospitals had been implemented as the had been a significant drop in occupancy and was inefficient.  Activity had now levelled off and the hospitals were seeing 95% occupancy levels.

 

Sedgefield and Richardson Hospitals had been developed under PFI arrangements and a 14 year lease ran in both hospitals.  As the rental costs have to be paid, space would be utilised and it would be recommended to strengthen the use by working with local groups.  There were no plans however to increase the number of beds.  This was the same for Weardale where occupancy had been around 75% but was now at 95% with the potential to flex the number of beds in winter to accommodate demand.

 

Referring to Shotley Bridge Hospital, the Director of Integration said that concerns had been raised a number of years ago and the CCGs agreed to undertake a review and work was still ongoing.  A reference group had been set up with senior members and officers of the Council that was open and transparent in terms of the planning and proposed changes.  The group were now at the stage of receiving recommendations that would be debated at length.

 

Councillor Temple pointed out that not all community hospitals had been mentioned and asked for an update on Peterlee and Chester-le-Street.  The Director of Integration explained that these were outside of the scope that she had been asked to look into.  However, she did explain that these hospitals were funded differently.

 

The Chief Executive CDDFT explained that Chester-le-Street had many additional services available that were all being utilised.  The Director of Commissioning said that Peterlee was owned by North Tees and Hartlepool Trust and a large number of services were delivered there including out of hours and community clinics, and there were no issues around void space.

 

The Director of Integration added that the CCG had plans to utilise some of the space at Sedgefield for office use so would become less of an issue going forward.

 

The Chairman referenced the recent establishment of the County Durham Integrated Care Partnership and asked where Scrutiny would sit within the governance arrangements.  The Director of Integration said that they would illustrate reporting arrangements and she confirmed that they would report to scrutiny with any updates.  The Chairman said that this was viewed as a major change and therefore would be added to the work programme to be monitored closely by this committee.  Councillor Crute suggested that the structure be revised to show that scrutiny would be involved.

 

Resolved:-

(i)            That the report be noted;

(ii)          That a more detailed update in respect of the Community Hospitals review be brought to a future meeting of the Committee;

(iii)         That the governance arrangements for the County Durham Integrated Care Partnership be amended to show where Scrutiny sits within the process;

(iv)         That consideration of the County Durham Integrated Care Partnership be added to the 2018/19 work programme for the Committee.

 

Supporting documents: