Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from the following members:

-        Barbara Shaw

-        Siama Ahmed

-        Jean Bradlow

-        Cllr Keats-Rohan

-        Cllr Douglas

-        Cllr Ley

Cllr Haywood declared an interest by virtue of his employment by NHS South Central

Cllr Hanna declared an interest as Chief Executive of SUDEP Action.

Members of the public who wish to speak at this meeting can attend the meeting in person or ‘virtually’ through an online connection.

To facilitate ‘hybrid’ meetings we are asking that requests to speak or present a petition are submitted by no later than 9am four working days before the meeting i.e., 9am on 26 June 2023.  Requests to speak should be sent to scrutiny@oxfordshire.gov.uk

If you are speaking ‘virtually’, you may submit a written statement of your presentation to ensure that your views are taken into account. A written copy of your statement can be provided no later than 9am 2 working days before the meeting. Written submissions should be no longer than 1 A4 sheet.

It was AGREED that the registered speaker, Cllr Hannaby, speaking of Chair of the Wantage Town Council Health Committee be invited to contribute alongside other speakers on the substantive item.

At its meeting on 11 May the Committee agreed that ‘any decision to refer to the Secretary of State would be deferred pending the progress made at the planned co-production stakeholder event, and that there would be an extraordinary meeting in late June to consider views on this.’ The co-production stakeholder event is scheduled to take place on 28 June, and the Committee is asked to

1.1   ACCEPT the recommendation of the Substantial Change Working Group members concerning whether to refer the closure of Wantage Hospital Inpatient Services to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and, if the recommendation is to make a referral,

1.2   DELEGATE to the Chair, in consultation with the Scrutiny Manager, the power to write and send a suitable report to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care prior to when the Committee loses this power

NB The covering report providing the background is to follow. Attending members of the Substantial Change Working Group will be given the opportunity to provide verbal feedback at the meeting.

The Chair reminded the Committee of its previous agreement to defer the decision whether to make a referral to the Secretary of State in relation to the closure of beds at Wantage Hospital on the basis that a co-produced workshop had been offered between stakeholders to identify a common way forward. The current meeting was to assess, based on the outcomes of this meeting, the next steps.

The Chair fed back her experience of the workshop to the Committee, expressing her thanks to the many stakeholders who had given up time and effort to make it happen. As a prelude to this, she noted that a compendium of the HOSC’s involvement with this issue, as detailed in the public record, had been distributed to the NHS and illustrated the commitment HOSC had shown to consideration of this issue.

The purpose of the meeting was to focus on a five-year future for the residents of Wantage and surrounding area in relation to the services provided at the hospital following the temporary closure of inpatient beds and the loss of the minor injuries unit, and to understand the situation with regards to outpatient services currently operating, largely as pilots. The Committee had previously expressed recommended greater reach-out to the community by the NHS, and that as new managers and strategies had been announced community members were left with a sense of ‘groundhog day’. It was important that the meeting demonstrate a new approach compared to what had preceded it, and the Chair had spoken with almost all community representatives attending to hear their views on whether this had been achieved.

For the morning session, on balance feedback was that there had been an improvement, and they saw enough evidence of a new approach to want to continue to work with the NHS to find a way forward in spite of the history. One criticism made was around the population data relied on for forecasts, which had been an issue raised by the OX12 Taskforce report. The data did not take account of registrations at GP practices as a proxy for healthcare demand, nor the growth of Wantage recently and in the future. Feedback concerning the presentations received was mixed, with those more established and permanent services faring better. At times feedback was that some of the presentations were unduly positive and did not engage with the question of what would happen when healthcare-provided beds were the most appropriate form of provision or recognition of when services were not working.

For the afternoon session, those feeding back were more positive with the discussions held, stating they felt actively involved and listened to. At the end of the day there was real energy and evidence of creative co-production but there was insufficient time to build on that positivity fully. Important outcomes agreed by senior NHS members present were to look in detail at the business case for a minor injuries unit, provision of surge beds in the locality and exploration of accessing CIL funding  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25/23