Agenda and minutes

Details of the arrangements in case of fire or other events that might require the meeting room or building’s evacuation will be announced.

The Chairman advised all present of the action to be taken in the event of fire or other emergency requiring the evacuation of the building.

(if any) – receive.

Apologies were received from Councillor Linda Trew with Councillor Georgina Galpin substituting.

Councillor Paul McGeary was also present.

Officers present:

Emma Cockburn, Transport Planning Team Leader, London Borough of Havering

Neill Moloney, Director Planning and Performance, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT)

Heather Mullin, Health for North East London (H4NEL)

Cliff Reynolds and John Skillman, Havering Local Involvement Network (LINk) were also present.

Members are invited to declare any interests in any of the items on the agenda at this point of the meeting. Members may still declare an interest in an item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

There were no disclosures of interest

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 10 May 2012 (attached) and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 10 May 2012 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To consider the proposed amendment to the minutes of the meeting held on 28 February 2012 (attached).

The Committee noted that a request had been received from BHRUT to amend a small section of the minutes of the meeting of 28 February 2012 in order to reflect the position that  no start date had been agreed as yet for the transfer of maternity services from King George to Queen’s Hospitals. The Committee therefore AGREED that the second paragraph of minute 22 (BHRUT Update) of the minutes of the meeting held on 28 February 2012 be amended to read as follows:

The capital funding of approximately £1.5 million for expansion of the maternity facilities at Queen’s had now been agreed. It was anticipated that works would be completed by November 2012 and this would be followed by works to expand the Special Care Baby Unit. The start date for the transfer of maternity services from King George to Queen’s had not yet been agreed. Capacity issues at Whipps Cross and Newham hospitals would also be considered as part of the Health for North East London programme. Members were anxious that maternity and other services at King George were not reduced until the new facilities were in place.

To receive an update on the implementation of the programme from Heather Mullin, Health for North East London.

The programme director for Health for North East London (H4NEL) explained that the programme assumed population growth in Havering of 2.8% per year for the five years from 2013. These figures were derived from the GLA growth forecast and included an additional 1.9% non-demographic population growth. The impact of these figures on local hospital bed numbers was currently being checked and this would be completed by August 2012.

Work had now started on the Midwife Led Unit at Queen’s Hospital and this would be completed by the end of 2012. Barking Birthing Centre was now taking bookings and would also be fully operational by the end of 2012. The limit for births undertaken by the BHRUT Hospitals Trust had been set at 8,000 for the 2013/14 year.

As regards King George Hospital, renal dialysis facilities would open on the site in late 2012 as would a GP practice. Discussions were currently being held with local GP practices over which GPs would move onto the King George site. Details of the Urgent Care Centre at King George were still being worked on and a stakeholder event was planned for October 2012.

The programme director emphasised that all the local Councils, Health Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) were working together in order to successfully implement H4NEL. As regards user involvement, there were focus groups with local service users and the People’s Platform was meeting regularly. An additional bus route had now begun serving Queen’s Hospital, from the Barkingside area.

A key priority was the problem of falls among older people locally and H4NEL were investigating the reasons why falls occurred. Work had also been undertaken with the falls clinic at St. George’s Hospital and the programme director would report back once this work had been completed. Good practice at St. Mary’s, Paddington and a unit in Rochdale was also being looked at and Councillor Osborne also suggested reviewing work in this area that had been undertaken by the London Home and Water Safety Council.

It was confirmed that Dr. Gurdev Saini was the lead at Havering CCG for the implementation of the H4NEL programme. As regards any changes planned for St. George’s Hospital, it would be for the CCG to approach the Committee with details of these.

The poor budgetary state of BHRUT was accepted by the programme director who added that H4NEL still aimed to make the overall local health economy more sustainable. Changes to services etc. would be accommodated within a sustainable budget.

A representative from Havering LINk explained that the organisation was currently producing a report on domiciliary care and had met with a number of stakeholders including community matrons. An interim report on the domiciliary care review would be produced shortly.

It was confirmed that women were given a choice of what hospital they wished to give birth at, at the time of booking. Elective caesarean sections were now carried out at King George Hospital.

To receive an update on hospital transport issues from Council transport planning officers.

The Council’s transport planning officer explained that many of the H4NEL plans would mean the need to move between sites to access health services. This would be particularly true of people in Havering where some changes may require an additional 25 minutes journey to reach the facilities by public transport. As such, the Council’s submission to the autumn bus review had requested that a number of existing bus services be extended or diverted in order that they call into Queen’s Hospital. No response had however been received from TfL by the time of the spring bus review.

The Council’s submission to the spring review had requested a higher frequency on the 365 route serving St. Francis Hospice as well as again requesting dialogue with TfL on bus services to Queen’s Hospital. One additional route had recently been introduced into Queen’s Hospital – the 128 running between Ilford and Claybury Broadway. TfL had also recently indicated tentative support for bringing the 66, 498 and 499 routes into Queen’s as well as a possible hourly service to St. Francis Hospice with a turnaround at Havering Atte Bower. TfL had in addition indicated a wish to be involved in the development of the Morrisons store near Queen’s Hospital in order to try and secure some further bus improvements.

Work was currently underway to improve access at Chadwell Heath station. Planned work in conjunction with the Crossrail development would lead to step free access to all platforms at Gidea Park and Harold Wood stations but this would not be completed until mid-2015. Public information events on the works were planned for early 2013. A redesign of Romford station was still under discussion.

The officer clarified that consultations were undertaken to ascertain the bus services people wanted. Concerns raised by residents were also taken up over the course of the year. Members felt that they needed earlier notification of proposals for changes to bus services and also that residents needed to be engaged with more fully on this area. Perhaps information could be included with Council Tax bills or use could be made of Living Magazine. Officers responded that feedback was generated from residents by for example the Your Council Your Say survey.

It was explained that, while detailed work still needed to be undertaken, it was proposed to give bus routes 498 and 499 access to Queen’s Hospital via Rom Valley Way. Members welcomed this but felt it was also essential to work on introducing a route linking Queen’s and King George Hospitals.  

There was currently a sloped walk between Harold Wood station and Harold Wood polyclinic. Once the new housing estate had been completed, it was anticipated that bus access to the vicinity of the polyclinic would be introduced. The parking situation at the polyclinic was not considered a major problem. The representative of BHRUT agreed that people should make more use of the polyclinic.

The Committee NOTED the update.

To receive an update on issues affecting Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals’ NHS Trust (BHRUT) from Neill Moloney, Director of Planning and Performance, BHRUT.

The Director of Planning and Performance at BHRUT admitted that there were significant financial challenges at the Trust but felt that the Trust had the support of its partners in addressing these. H4NEL was also seen as part of the solution.

The Trust had recently agreed a cost improvement plan with support from the local NHS cluster. This would be shared with the Committee later in the year. It was emphasised that the transfer of services between Queens and King George Hospitals was subject to a Gateway Review confirming that the existing services were sufficiently robust in quality.

The current sexual health service at Queen’s was being relocated in order to allow more space for the reconfiguration of A&E at the hospital. A site for the service was currently being sought in Romford Town Centre. The Committee felt that the site identified for the service was too high profile and that such a service should not be housed in a separate, self-contained unit. The BHRUT officer agreed to feed these views back.

The transfer of A&E services from King George to Queen’s Hospitals was currently being planned and updates on the timescale etc. would be brought to future meetings of the Committee.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) had now given feedback to the Trust and had indicated they considered satisfactory progress had been made against most of their recommendations. The CQC had however highlighted continuing concerns around A&E and the Trust’s Reset programme was designed to address emergency care transformation. The Rapid Assessment and Treatment system which had been successfully used at Queen’s would shortly be introduced at King George. This system was intended to be consultant led but there remained a need to recruit further consultants to A&E at the Trust. Four more consultants had however recently been recruited to start work in September. It was also hoped to extend the hours in which the system operated. This would also require the extension of consultant cover at weekends etc.

The Trust now had a new management structure with 11 clinical directors and had received support from NHS London to recruit senior doctors. It was accepted that there remained a lot of work to be done but the BHRUT director felt there had been significant improvements in the last year.

It was explained that the A&E at King George would not be closed until work on the A&E at Queen’s had been completed. Work was in progress with the CCGs and NELFT on the clinical model of care with the aim of enhancing community provision in order to reduce hospital admissions.

It was agreed that the BHRUT officer would seek to obtain figures for he redundancy costs etc. associated with the recent changes at Trust Board level and supply these to the Committee. It was pointed out however that several staff affected were currently still employed by the Trust.

A Member related problems a constituent had encountered concerning extremely long waits for appointments at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report attached.

In addition to the proposed work programme contained in the agenda papers, the Committee expressed a wish to see more performance information from the local Health Trusts. A useful first step would be for the committee officer to circulate papers for Trust board meetings as these often contained this type of performance information.

The Committee requested the arranging of a number of visits including King George Hospital to view the areas affected by the reconfiguration, Hornchurch clinic which the Committee felt may be underused and to Cranham Health Centre.

The Committee also expressed a wish to scrutinise the issues of dementia locally. This would need to be done in conjunction with the Individuals Overview and Scrutiny Committee and it was decided to hold this after the Members had attended the dementia awareness training later in the year.

The Committee also wished to receive more details on the breast cancer screening programme and the precise services offered at the Victoria Centre and Harold Wood polyclinic.

With the addition of the comments shown above, the Committee AGREED the proposed work programme for 2012/13.  

Report attached.

It was AGREED unanimously that Councillors Light, Brice-Thompson and Dodin would be the Committee’s representatives on the Outer North East London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

It was further AGREED that Councillor Light would be the Committee’s representative on any pan-London health scrutiny committee that may need to be formed during the 2012/13 municipal year.

To consider any other item of which the Chairman is of the opinion, by means of special circumstances which shall be specified in the minutes, that the item shall be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

The Committee AGREED to start future meetings at 7.00 pm rather than 7.30 pm.

A representative of Havering LINk explained that the organisation was meeting shortly with representatives of Homes in Havering to discuss domiciliary care. This was to consider Council procedures and the quality of care agencies commissioned, given that a high proportion of tenants were aged over 60.  

The LINk was also encouraging the use of a butterfly logo on care plans etc. to indicate patients suffering from dementia. The LINk requested the Committee’s support in this initiative and the Committee AGREED to support Havering LINk’s campaign to introduce the use of the butterfly logo.

The Committee briefly discussed the future of St. George’s Hospital, the decision on which now rested with the Clinical Commissioning Group. It was noted that this was an ongoing issue that would require further scrutiny as the plans became clearer.