Agenda item

The Committee received a presentation from Rachel Rooney, Head of Commissioning, NHS County Durham CCG that provided Members with an update on Phase 2 of Public Engagement for Shotley Bridge Community Hospital Services (for copy of presentation, see file of minutes).

The Head of Commissioning provided Members with details of progress to date and gave an overview of the different types of hospitals within the region and the types of services delivered in each setting. Members were then provided with details of some of the challenges that they currently faced. In terms of their vision they had to ensure that they made the best use of technology and help with a reduction of health inequalities and ensuring that they deliver care around the needs of the patient. They needed to think about prevention and promoting of self-care and getting it right for the future and ensuring health professionals had a fantastic facility to work from.

Members were provided with details of the service areas and the scenario in 2019 and the scenario in 2021 since engagement. Members were also provided with an overview of the proposed clinical model in the wider health and social care context. They wanted to ensure that any facility they provided in the future gave the opportunity to diversify to ensure that they maximised the space.

The Head of Commissioning indicated that they were hopeful that their outlining business case would be completed by the end of May. They then had an assurance process to go through regionally and nationally to ensure that they were spending taxpayer’s money in the best possible way and ensuring that they were providing value for money. If all the deadlines were met, they aimed to start construction June 2022 and if a new build construction this would be completed early 2024 and a refurbishment of the existing site would be up to a year later.

Councillor Temple thanked the Committee, the Chair and the Principal Overview and Scrutiny Officer who never let Shotley Bridge Hospital out of their sight and that local people were running the consultation and he felt that they were being consulted and engaged in a positive way and allowed them some scope to contribute. He then referred to the recent report from the BBC who had said that the hospital was to be refurbished and his understanding was that this was still a matter of choice and that people were about to be consulted and what he had seen so far was the vast majority who had been asked had indicated that they wanted a new build but the two options were still on the table.

Councillor Shield indicated that the first meeting of the Shotley Bridge Reference Group was 17 October 2017 but a lot more progress had been made than previously and the introduction of the additional funding support from central government was recognised and appreciated. He had taken part in a number of consultations and referred to the straw poll and commented that amongst all of the participants he dared say that 100% of people wanted a new build rather than a refurbishment. He took the point made by lots of participants about the ageing workforce and the ongoing development within the locality of some nearly 2000 additional properties. Whatever was going to be developed had to have that scope to take on board any potential increase in population. The rumours were that they were going to get a refurbished hospital at Shotley Bridge rather than a new build. He referred to Medomsley Detention Centre which was originally going to be a housing estate then a rumour that it was going to be turned into a detention centre and it turned out that it was going to be a detention centre. He indicated that no decision had been made yet on the hospital and asked when the decision would be made, who would make that decision and what impact did they have to ensure that the needs, aspirations and more importantly the wants of this population were fulfilled by a new build, wherever it was going to be located.

The Head of Commissioning responded that the report from BBC News earlier in the week was not helpful. The media had picked it up in a slightly wrong way and that no decision on Shotley Bridge Hospital had been made at this stage and there were two options, a refurbishment and a new build on the genesis site in Consett. This would be presented as part of the outline business case at the end of May and would demonstrate a preferred option that would be based on both non-financial assessment criteria and financial to make sure that they provided value for money. They would consider all of the things members of the public had told them and the straw pool would be used as intelligence in terms of people’s preference and some of the other considerations that she had mentioned around continuity of service and ensure that they were able to provide a modern fit for purpose building which was predominantly their main aim.

Resolved: That the update be noted.