Issue - meetings

Report and presentation attached.

The Deputy Chief Nurse for BHRUT confirmed that, following the recent CQC inspection, the Trust had exited special measures. The inspection had been targeted on certain services including paediatrics, outpatients and accident & emergency. The most recent inspection report had given better ratings to the Trust but it was accepted that further work still needed to be undertaken. Three of the Trust’s core services were now rated as ‘good’ with none being rated ‘inadequate’.

Several areas of outstanding practice had been noted in the Trust’s children’s services as well as in services for dementia which had seen a lot of improvement. Staff feedback on the Trust’s services was now more positive and an operational plan for the next two years had been developed. The Trust’s full operational plan and strategy could also be supplied to the Committee.

It was accepted that the Trust needed to work more closely with the NHS 111 service. Waits for treatment had improved and there were now only three people who had waited more than a year for treatment at the Trust. Patient feedback at the Trust was above the London average and a new patient experience strategy had recently been launched.

A lot of overseas recruitment of nurses had taken place but it had proved difficult to keep recruits in post long term. The Trust was therefore looking to further develop its nursing associates scheme whereby healthcare assistants could train to move into nursing. From January 2018, the Trust would also begin training its own nurses in partnership with the University of East London.

Whilst the Trust aimed to received ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ ratings for all services assessed, officers accepted that a lot of work remained in order for this to be achieved. Trends in performance were shown on the Trust’s Integrated Quality Dashboard and this could potentially be brought to a future meeting of the Committee.

The decision to close A & E at King George Hospital had been taken in 2011 and broader planning around this was currently being reviewed. The lower ratings received for ‘being safe’ domains at Queen’s were primarily due to a lack of hand washing by staff. These areas were now being monitored on a monthly basis. Members felt it would be useful for the Committee to receive a further update on progress with the safety of services at the Trust.

The decision to only have public Board meetings on a bi-monthly basis allowed more time to be spent on delivering improvements but officers would report back to the Trust the Committee’s concerns that a greater degree of transparency was required. The Clerk to the Committee would also contact the Trust re this issue.

Officers also agreed to share information on the number of deaths in A & E at the Trust over the last two years.  

Subject to the actions listed above, the Committee NOTED the position.