Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Adult Social Care

Forward Plan Ref: 2015/087

Contact: Kate Terroni, Deputy Director – Joint Commissioning Tel: (01865) 815792

Report by Director for Adult Social Services (CA8).

This report outlines a proposal for public consultation on the future of the way Intermediate Care is provided in North Oxfordshire. Intermediate Care is services which support people to avoid going into hospital or help people get back home as quickly as possible. The consultation is asking for people's views on Intermediate Care continuing to be provided through a bed-based service in Chipping Norton and on the development of home-based Intermediate Care.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to agree that there is a public consultation on the way Intermediate Care is provided in North Oxfordshire in the future as set out in this report.

Cabinet considered a report on a proposal for public consultation on the future of the way Intermediate Care is provided in North Oxfordshire. Intermediate Care is services which support people to avoid going into hospital or help people get back home as quickly as possible. The consultation was to ask for people's views on Intermediate Care continuing to be provided through a bed-based service in Chipping Norton and on the development of home-based Intermediate Care.

This report outlines a proposal for public consultation on the future of the way Intermediate Care is provided in North Oxfordshire. Intermediate Care is services which support people to avoid going into hospital or help people get back home as quickly as possible. The consultation is asking for people's views on Intermediate Care continuing to be provided through a bed-based service in Chipping Norton and on the development of home-based Intermediate Care.

Clive Hill, Chipping Norton Hospital Steering Group, spoke to ask Cabinet to reconsider plans for Chipping Norton Hospital. He considered that the process was fatally flawed. He felt that comments by John Jackson were meant to intimidate local people by suggesting that they would lose everything by not agreeing to the plan.

He was increasingly confident that local people would be successful at a judicial review both on process and the outcome reached. He highlighted a number of reasons why the Steering Group believed that the plan should be suspended until what they would consider a proper review of healthcare in Oxfordshire had been carried out. This included issues on bed blocking; that the beds at Chipping Norton Hospital were sub-acute beds which means they should be providing a higher level of care than was planned; there should be no downgrade from the current very successful NHS staffed service provided by Oxford health. He added that he had heard that there had been discussions on turning the beds into a ward for geriatric patients which if true was an indication that local people were not being told everything. He went on to raise concerns about the use of the ISIS Centre as the model for the Chipping Norton service. Mr Hill stated that as the beds were sub-acute beds and as such should be commissioned by the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group. What was needed in Chipping Norton was a fully functioning Community Hospital.

Councillor Rose stated that he found it offensive that Mr Hill referred to threats and intimidation when the officer had been merely stating the position in a factual way.

Mr Hill responding to a question from the Leader confirmed that he was suggesting that the County Council transfer commissioning to the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

Councillor Heathcoat, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, in introducing the report and moving the recommendations referred to an email that she and all Cabinet Members had received from Mark Taylor, a director from Banbury Heights Nursing Home in Banbury. She added that she had written to Mr Taylor to explain about the consultation. Councillor Heathcoat explained that intermediate care was about keeping people out of hospital and returning people to independent living after a spell in hospital. She detailed the facilities and management arrangements in relation to Chipping Norton Hospital. She stressed that status quo was not an option and could not be supported. The facilities were not just for Chipping Norton but for the county as a whole. There had to be equality of service provision coupled to value for money. Options had to be both affordable and sustainable in the long term.

John Jackson, Director for Adult Social Services added that the proposals were about making sure that the outcomes for patients were right and also achieving a value for money service. The suggestion that the NHS could take over commissioning of the site ignored the financial challenge that faced that organisation. He commented that he had acknowledged at the Oxfordshire Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee in July that the current service provision was not well understood by people. However it was the case that Chipping Norton Hospital had not offered a sub-acute beds since 2011 and what was under discussion was intermediate care. The service was registered by CQC for intermediate care. In all discussion he had been very clear about the options and what was feasible.

Cabinet supported the recommendations with Cabinet Members recognising that Chipping Norton Hospital was not a community hospital.

RESOLVED:           to agree that there is a public consultation on the way Intermediate Care is provided in North Oxfordshire in the future as set out in the report.