Agenda and draft minutes

The Chairman will announce details of the arrangements in case of fire or other events that might require the meeting room or building’s evacuation.

A minute’s silent reflection will be held in memory of Councillor Stuart Bellwood (London Borough of Redbridge) who sadly passed away recently.

A minute’s silent reflection was held in memory of former Redbridge Councillor Stuart Bellwood who had recently passed away. A number of tributes were paid to former Councillor Bellwood.

Apologies were received from Councillor Umar Alli, Waltham Forest, Councillor Richard Sweden substituting.

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

7. NELFT PROSTHETICS CENTRE - CHANGE OF LOCATION.

Councillor Richard Sweden, Personal. Was until recently managed by NELFT in his work role.

To agree as a correct record the minutes of the meetings held on 28 January 2020 and 11 February 2020 (attached).

The minutes of the meetings of the Joint Committee held on 28 January and 11 February were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Report attached.

The Joint Committee agreed the amendments to its terms of reference that were proposed in the agenda papers, in order to clarify the position around public speaking and questions at its meetings.

Information sand covering report attached.

The accountable officer for North East London Clinical Commissioning Group (CCGs) explained that work was in progress to prepare for the second wave of Covid-19 and the winter peak of demand on health services. Health systems were still in an emergency phase but plans were also being worked on to return to business as usual.

Work had been undertaken with Healthwatch to identify the lessons learnt from the pandemic as well as with partners such as primary care, social care and Council Public Health teams. Next steps would include working with colleagues to address the impact on areas such as outpatients and elective surgery. It was also wished to keep open channels of communication between Health bodies and Councils.

Regular primary care services were resuming with face to face GP appointments available where clinically appropriate. This would be emphasised in NHS communications and  there would be a focus on people with long term conditions. A & E attendances were now rising again and were now at two thirds of pre-pandemic levels. It was important that people used the NHS appropriately.

The flu vaccine would initially be available to over 65s and those at risk but would be extended to the over 50s from November. Officers apologised for the increase in waiting times for blood tests. Work had been undertaken with NELFT in order to increase blood testing capacity for the area.

Covid testing in care homes had commenced at an early stage in North East London and named clinical leads had been established for care homes. PPE deliveries to care homes were also in place regularly.

Surgical hubs were working to restore patient services and it was accepted that waiting times had increased due to the backlog. Work was under way to try to reduce this.

Work at BHRUT included establishing ‘green’ patient pathways to allow Covid-free operations, principally at King George Hospital. Both A & E departments at the Trust were open as usual with emergency surgery being performed at Queen’s. Paediatric in-patients were still treated at Queen’s although overall numbers were low. This would only be for the pandemic period and was not intended to be a long term configuration.

Waiting lists at BHRUT were prioritised according to clinical need. Capital investment had been secured at Queen’s Hospital to establish point of care testing in A & E and to expand the Rapid Assessment and Fast Treatment area. Investments had also been made at King George on the frailty unit and expanding the Urgent Treatment Centre as well as on improving wellbeing facilities for staff. It was hoped the new facilities at King George would be complete by the end of 2021.High volume elective services would take place at King George which would also retain it’s A & E.

Around 20% of BHRUT patients were from South West Essex with a small amount also from the Chigwell area.

 It was accepted that there was some reluctance among GPs to see patients face to face but 39% of GP appointments across the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

Information and cover report attached.

NELFT officers explained that the prosthetics service was provided on behalf of NHS England for a wide geographical area. The service was based at the Long Term Conditions Centre in Harold Wood but this was not a good quality building and had not been greatly updated since being built in the 1950s.

The building housed both a clinical and manufacturing facility and this needed to be the same on any new site. A suitable alternative site in the local area had not proved possible to identify and the Trust had therefore selected the Mayflower Unit in Billericay as the new location for the service. It was emphasised that it had not been viable to alter the existing Harold Wood building which was not for purpose due to infection control and health & safety issues.

The service aimed to supply reablement and rehabilitation and worked with patients to help them become independent. A multi-disciplinary team was available covering nursing, therapy, psychological support etc. A consultation on the move commenced in February 2020 and was originally to last 28 days. The Covid-19 pandemic had however meant that only emergency repairs and prostheses could be carried out and it was not wished to return staff to the Harold Wood building. Every patient using the service had been contacted as part of the consultation.

The new service was on course to open in Billericay in October 2020 and officers were happy for Members to visit the site if they wished. The new building had been designed in conjunction with service users.

A NELFT officer apologised for using the term ‘moaning’ when referring to feedback from service users. The new service would be fully with the Veterans and Prosthetics reviews and a detailed brief would be brought to the Committee covering the Equalities Impact Assessment, travel issues and the carbon footprint.

A Member from Essex stated that the Billericay site was a more suitable location for Essex residents. Officers added that feedback from the Care Quality Commission was that the Harold Wood site could not be brought up to the required standard. A representative from Healthwatch stated the organisation was pleased that NELFT would cover any taxi fares for service users to the Billericay site.

The investment in the Mayflower site was within the NELFT capital budget. Officers were not aware of the plans for the former site in Harold Wood which was the responsibility of NHS Property. Details of relevant officers at NHS Property could be provided as well as the Equality Impact Assessment and information on travel times.

The Joint Committee noted the position.

The Joint Committee is invited to consider items for its future work programme.

The Joint Committee is also invited to agree the following dates for future meetings in the 2020/21 municipal year and to agree the start times for these:

Tuesday 15 September

Tuesday 16 March

It was agreed that future meetings of the Joint Committee for the remainder of the municipal year would start at 5 pm on the following dates:

Tuesday 15 December 2020

Tuesday 16 March 2021

A Member asked of details could be provided of the work a medical company that had been offering its services locally.

Members asked if further scrutiny could be undertaken of the perceived imbalance in health resources between Inner and Outer North East London. It was suggested that the borough Public Health departments could be contacted to give their views on this, workloads permitting.

It was also suggested that issues of health inequalities could be scrutinised particular emphasis on diabetes, mental health and obesity. This could asp link with existing Public Health work on inequalities.