Agenda item

10:20

Stuart Bell, Chief Executive of Oxford Health and Chair of Oxfordshire’s Transformation Board will update the Committee on the development of system-wide Transformation Plans (JHO5).

A Panel attended to update the Committee on the development of system-wide Transformation Plans and also to respond to questions from members of the Committee. It comprised of Stuart Bell, Chief Executive, Oxford Health (OH): Andrew Stevens, Director of Planning & Information, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUFT): Dr Joe McManners, Clinical Chair, Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG): and John Jackson, Director of Adult Social Services, Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) and member of the Transformation Board. A presentation was given by Stuart Bell. 

Stuart Bell, responding to a question about whether there was a sufficiency of trained people to provide health care, agreed that there was a need for more trained personnel and support staff, for example, volunteer drivers. He stated the Board’s belief in the importance of creating career structures and the development of apprenticeships. John Jackson added that the practical issues inherent in finding a sufficient workforce to do the job had been recognised at the onset of the Project – and there had been some success in attracting more social care providers into the county – but he had warned that the introduction of the living wage was viewed as a potential problem for the future.

A member asked whether there was sufficient money for the technology required for the project. Stuart Bell responded that much of the technology was about people purchasing their own Health apps to download onto their mobile phone. To this end the Board were working with the Oxford Academic Health Scientists Network on attracting investment into the capability of linking information into the system. He added that the Board was holding discussions with a number of partners and investors in this field with a view to linking into and developing this field. Mr Bell accepted that not everybody accepted new technology, but it was surprising how many older people did – and this acceptance could make the difference between people staying in their own home or having to leave it. An important thread of the project was the concept that care needed to be made much more personal and adapted to people’s own circumstances.

A member of the Committee expressed the view that more work needed to be done in the sphere of sharing information on patients between different healthcare professionals or departments to avoid conflicting, and therefore confusing advice. Dr McManners responded that the system needed to be sufficiently flexible to offer a grade of different interventions to assist patients, adding it was more about partnership between the patient and the professional than patient responsibility. The new proposals allowed the patient to self - report and to observe and take action if required.

A member expressed the view that issues in the national agenda such as the scrapping of nurses’ bursaries by 2020 and the issues currently in the media regarding GPs contracts could all have an impact on the local workforce and attract funding problems in the future. Mr Bell agreed that any issues of this kind could not be ignored, but there were always opportunities to attract funding and get the best out of a situation, for example, nurses training could be supported by Trusts in return for an agreement that they will work for the Trust for a set number of years.

A question was asked about how robust this Plan for Oxfordshire was in the midst of discussion about the overall structure of local government within Oxfordshire. Dr McWilliam stated that it would be important to design the best systems whose principles did not depend on organisational structures within the NHS or local government, but would be robust.

Mr Bell was asked if there would be sufficient time for the public to be allowed the opportunity to influence plans, given that there would be a consultation at the end of the summer. He responded that there had already been some work with service users at local level, adding however that more discussion and planning would need to take place on this.

The Chairman thanked all attendees for the excellent presentation. On behalf of the Committee she asked for more information to be given by the OCCG on what would be delivered locally in relation to home/bed based care. – and gave permission for details of this Committee to be included on the Transformation Board’s website.