To receive an update on developments at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) from a senior Trust officer.
Minutes:
A number of new appointments had been made to the BHRUT management team. This included a new Director of Nursing – Flo Pannell-Coates who had started with the Trust that week. A number of new clinical directors had also been recruited.
Targets had been met by BHRUT for cancer waiting times and infection control. Complaint response times had also improved. Other achievements included receiving good or excellent ratings in recent PEAT inspections and lobbying for extra bus links to Queen’s Hospital. Further work was underway on areas including the emergency care pathway, ensuring a better patient experience, staff culture, attitudes and behaviour.
The Trust was undertaking a large programme of staff engagement and had recently joined UCL partners with the aim of strengthening areas such as training and innovation. Several Clinical Fellows had also recently been recruited to BHRUT as had a new Director of Infection Control.
All but eight of the recommendations made in the Care Quality Commission (CQC) had now been met or partly met by the Trust. A follow up inspection was held in September 2012 and all conditions imposed by the CQC on BHRUT’s registration had now been lifted. As regards cancer services, 99.5% of patients were seen within two weeks with even many of the remaining 0.5% being offered appointments within this period but being unable to attend. The hospital mortality ratio at the Trust had improved to 94 against a London benchmark of 100.
The Trust had the best midwife to births ratio in London and also offered a high level of senior doctor cover in maternity. Building on the Queen’s birth centre was due to be completed in October 2012 and the unit would comprise eight delivery rooms and four post-natal beds. Figures for numbers of births at BHRUT in the coming years were as follows:
2011-12 10,300 births across Queen’s and King George
2012-13 9,200 births at Queen’s, 1,900 at King George
2013-14 8,000 births at Queen’s obstetrics and midwife-led unit only (this would include approximately 500 births from the Essex area).
Having mothers would normally be allowed to have their deliveries at Queen’s. Births that were expected to be more straightforward would be handled at the Midwife-Led Unit but this would still be on site at Queen’s.
There were now four new emergency consultants at Queen’s and the Deanery had also agreed the provision of additional junior doctor cover in A&E. The RESET programme was looking at discharge issue and the provision of additional capacity at Queen’s A&E and Critical Care Unit.
The Trust had recorded a £49 million deficit last year and planned to improve this by £10 million this year. A £40 million deficit control target had been agreed for 2012-13. Patient activity had shown a shift between elective and day cases and the BHRUT officer agreed to separate out activity figures for Queen’s Hospital alone.
Approximately £15 million had been invested in the last year in facilities such as the Midwife-Led Unit at Queen’s and the endoscopy and renal units at King George. An upgrade of pathology services was also being planned. As regards hospital food, new menus were reviewed with Havering LINk and the Independent Patient Experience Group. Who had also been invited to attend during mealtimes. Any pre-chilled meals used at the hospital were required to follow nutritional guidelines.
Most cardiac arrest cases were taken straight to the London Chest Hospital as this was felt to be the best clinical outcome. Cardiac arrest cases presenting at Queen’s would however only be transferred once they had been assessed and stabilised.
A range of BHRUT performance information was available in Board papers and also on the Trust’s website. This included benchmarking information.
The Committee noted the update.