Agenda item

Scrutiny of the implementation plans for the Health for North East London proposals. Presentation and discussions with Heather Mullin, Health for North East London and Averil Dongworth, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals’ NHS Trust. Letter from the Rt Hon Andrew Lanlsey CBE MP, Secretary of State for Health attached.

The Chairman noted that any discussions of the item at the meeting did not preclude individual overview and scrutiny committees from also scrutinising the H4NEL plans.

The H4NEL programme director thanked the Joint Committee for its work on the plans to date and felt that the recommendations of the Independent Reconfiguration Panel were better for the work undertaken by the Committee.

For financial reasons, the Outer and Inner North East London PCT clusters had been combined under a single Chief Executive – Alwen Williams. As regards maternity provision, the Barking Birthing Centre was on target to receive its first delivery by April 2012. The programme director reiterated that the vision for King George Hospital was to provide a range of services on the site.

The Independent Reconfiguration Panel was pleased with the level of clinical support and leadership at H4NEL. It had also recommended that the scrutiny of the plans carried out by the LINks and People’s Platform should continue. The Secretary of State had however stated that the H4NEL plans could not be implemented until quality issues at Queen’s Hospital had been addressed. A programme board (not covering Waltham Forest) including the Clinical Commissioning Groups had been formed to monitor this improvement.

It was planned to deliver the H4NEL proposals over a two-year period from February 2012. The programme board would work with local LINks and the People’s Platform to develop commissioning and engagement strategies. A more detailed action plan and timelines were being developed. It was also planned to continue to involve the Joint Committee in this work.

BHRUT officers accepted that it was a large challenge to create sufficient bed capacity at Queen’s to accommodate the additional work from King George. There was a however now a high level of clinical engagement and officers were confident that this could be delivered.

It was accepted that H4NEL impacted on all the North East London boroughs including for example the extra capacity the changes would require at Whipps Cross. Only the programme board would be restricted to the BHRUT area. The H4NEL executive, chaired by the programme director, would include Waltham Forest representatives including from the Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Group. The consultation did give a clear articulation of what services needed to be on the Whipps Cross site and the programme director reiterated that Waltham Forest would continue to be part of the user engagement strategy and that she did not wish to exclude Waltham Forest from any discussions.

The programme director agreed that changes such as the moving of maternity services from King George to Queen’s could not proceed until the relevant assurances had been received. This would be covered in the composite action plan for the project.  

The programme director explained that the H4NEL governance structure was now more sophisticated and she would provide to the Committee slides illustrating this. The effect of H4NEL on the estates strategy would be considered as part of the decision making business case and plans for the estate would be brought to the committee. Members also sought assurances that Essex would continue to be involved in discussions and scrutiny of the H4NEL plans.

The BHRUT communications manager confirmed that the Trust was campaigning for improved transport links to and between King George and Queen’s Hospitals. Members felt that access to Whipps Cross from areas such as Chingford also needed improvement. It was also felt that H4NEL also needed to engage more with GPs in this area and publish a clear list of contacts. The programme director accepted that more work was needed with Waltham Forest GPs and would also take this back to NHS ONEL as the commissioners. It was agreed to ask Transport for London to give a presentation on hospital transport at the next meeting. Councillor Russell would liaise with the clerk to the committee to arrange this.

A co-opted member raised the issue of plans for developing the Goodmayes Hospital site and it was confirmed that BHRUT and the North East London NHS Foundation Trust would be involved the development of the estates strategy. The programme director agreed to provide to the Committee a timeline of the procurement exercise for Barking Birthing Centre.