Agenda item

(i)         Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS FT

(ii)         North East Ambulance Service NHS FT

(iii)        County Durham and Darlington NHS FT

The Committee received information from Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust and County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust that set out progress made against their Quality Accounts priorities for 2019/20 (for copy see file of minutes).

Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV)

The Director of Quality Governance, Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust gave a brief update and highlighted the four priority areas for 2019/20 as:-

·        Personalising care planning

·        Reducing preventable deaths

·        Improving child to adult service transitions

·        Increasing the proportion of inpatients who feel safe on our wards

In referencing the Quality Improvement Metrics, members were informed that the average length of stay for patients in Mental Health Services for Older People Assessment and Treatment wards continued to be underperforming. The Director of Quality Governance indicated that this was often down to the lack of suitable alternative placements to enable transfers of care to be undertaken. Members also noted that the patient experience measures for the Trust were generally better for the Durham and Darlington locality than for other areas within the Trust.

North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust

The Assistant Director of Communications and Engagement gave a brief update and highlighted the three priority areas as:

·        Continue to develop a Just and restorative Culture to improve patient safety

·        To develop our mental health implementation plan, working in partnership with others to improve the experience and care provided to patients with mental health needs accessing our services

·        To improve early intervention with patients in cardiac arrest

The Chair praised the service for delivering support and training for new community defibrillators and was pleased to learn of the new app ‘GoodSAM’ whereby a member of staff off duty could be called upon to deliver cardiac care until a paramedic arrived on scene.  The Assistant Director of Communications offered to arrange a demonstration on the use of defibrillators and the Chair suggested that he could speak to the AAPs to get the message out to as many people as possible.

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT)

The Associate Director of Nursing, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust gave a brief update and highlighted the three priority areas as :-

·        Safety including falls, dementia care, healthcare associated infections and pressure ulcers

·        Experience including nutrition and hydration, end of life palliative care and the friends and family test

·        Effectiveness including mortality ratio, reduction in readmissions to hospitals, reduction in length of time to assess and treat in A&E, paediatric care and excellence reporting.

The Associate Director of Nursing advised that the trust had received and outstanding judgement for their end of life care following the recent CQC inspection.  She informed the committee that additional winter funding had been received to alleviate the pressure in the A&E assessments.  She also went on to advise of two never events, both human factors and the patients were not harmed.

Referring to one of the never events Councillor Temple asked for an explanation as to whether it was private health care staff involved or another body using the facility.  The Associate Director of Nursing advised that in this instance it was NHS staff from another facility who were involved.

Councillor Smith was aware of the long standing issues within the accident and emergency department and asked if they had a full complement of staff and if the trust had considered re-opening A&E at Bishop Auckland Hospital to alleviate some of the pressures.  The Associate Director of Nursing responded that there was not a full complement of nursing or medical staff although the trust were actively recruiting and roles were being looked at.  She was not in a position to answer the question about Bishop Auckland but went on to add that should the trust look at other venues they would also need to all other high level care settings including intensive care.

The Principal Overview and Scrutiny Officer referred to the recently announced CQC Re-section report for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust and indicated that a report on this issue would be brought to the Committee’s meeting in January 2020.

Resolved:

That the reports be received and noted.