Agenda item

10:15

The Committee’s Forward Plan is attached at JHO5 for consideration.

The Committee considered the latest Forward Plan, as amended since the last meeting (JHO5).

Prior to discussion at this item, the Committee was addressed by Didcot Town Councillor Cathy Augustine. Her view was that, in light of the new government guidance through the recently published national Long  -  Term Plan, and the introduction of new commissioning bodies, primary care networks and merged areas, there was a need for a new round of consultation to consider how it would affect Oxfordshire. She stated that its implementation would make the work of oversight and scrutiny more difficult for this Committee. Localised responses would be required. She added that no workforce planning had been included, leading to a risk that acute, short-term pressures would crowd out investment, which, in her view, was vital to putting local health services on a stable and sustainable footing. She urged the Committee to be aware of this bigger picture, as individual initiatives were scrutinised.

It was also her view that the effect of digital changes would be to reduce face to face primary care, threatening both the quality of care and continuity of care. It also went against the stated drive of the Oxfordshire long term plan to reduce inequalities.

With regard to primary care networks, she asked how would the growth of large primary care networks play out in rural Oxfordshire, where a lack of public transport impacted on the elderly, young families and those in poverty.

County Councillor Jane Hanna echoed Councillor Augustine’s fears concerning the uncertainties about the role of this Committee, resulting from health and care plans at a national and local level. She also expressed her concern that there may be nothing placed in the public domain, thus affording little opportunity for the public to have its say. She added that there were urgent workforce issues around work planning which would impact on the public in a most impactful way. She asked what plans did this Committee have to view the contingency planning which is taking place, in a timely manner?  Councillor Hanna gave the supply of medications as an example of an issue which related to the fundamental changes to the regulatory function, together with contingency planning for potential transfers away from doctors who were prescribing. She commented that in her view there was much to be said for the development of the role of pharmacy, in order to avoid mistakes being made, should events take place at great speed.

In response to the above, the Chairman commented that any transition was scrutinised readily by this Committee and it would continue to do so. He added that the long-term NHS Plan was to be covered by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) at the Committee’s 4 April meeting

The Committee added the long-term NHS Plan to the Forward Plan, together with with an expanded Primary care item to cover the divide between primary care and community health services.

Actions included the following:

·         Committee training on the scrutiny of the integration of Health and Social Care to be looked into for possible delivery by the Centre for Public Scrutiny;

·         Chairman to explore with the Chair of Performance Scrutiny Committee the question of which Committee was the most appropriate domain to perform the scrutiny of the outcomes-based Mental Health contract. There was a need to scrutinise integration properly.