11:35
OCCG will give an oral update report on key issues and will outline any current and upcoming areas of work.
Minutes:
Lou Patten and Dr Kiren Collison, Chief Executive and Clinical Chair respectively, CCG gave an oral report on the current key issues for OCCG. They were also accompanied by Stuart Bell, Chief Executive, Oxford Health (OH).
Lou Patten reported on the following:
- The CCG was now involved in estates and infrastructure in conjunction with the County and district councils via the Growth Board and meetings related to the Oxford/Cambridge expressway. A fruitful meeting had taken place with West Oxfordshire District Council looking at both planning and infrastructure;
- She had met with the Deer Park PPG to gain their views on processes and transparency for when the CCG decided the trigger points at which GP practices and GP providers were required to look at how else to provide for a growing population;
- Work continued with providers to discuss how the plans for winter pressures could be executed, at the same time embedding the CQC work, but also ensuring that services were tailored to localities. Details of how the Government monies must be spent were yet to be worked through and the Committee would be kept updated. She reported that she had informed the regulator that if there was not a similar injection of monies for Social Care, then Oxfordshire would struggle to provide what was required. In response to a comment from a member about the lack of national guidelines on this matter, and if Oxfordshire was to become a pioneering authority in this regard, more money would be required from the DoH, she stated that she had asked for some money to oversee it, to accompany the money the CCG would commit for managerial resource. She added the end result would be a transparent look at how the CCG saw resources and how it was taking forward the market for new GPs.
Questions and responses received were as follows:
Lou Patten was asked about CCG input into the expressway consultation. She responded that she had heard at the Growth Board that the Police and Ambulance flows would be favoured by very good transport links and intended to query with NHS England how it would affect patient flow. A member informed the Committee that the proposal for the corridor was about to be announced and urged the CCG to consider the time-scale in respect of consultations. Stuart Bell pointed out that one of the most important implications arising from this venture was to consider the more strategic planning of services for Health and their sustainability, for example, for cardiac services.
A member asked whether the population planning ought to have a 20/30 year time-frame, rather than a 5 year one adopted by the NHS; a point which had been made as part of the IRP submission in relation to the Deer Park Surgery closure. Lou Patten responded that, in order to conduct a dialogue, planning needed to be about understanding the type of local populations and evidencing their needs. Only then could the physical infrastructure needs be looked at. Stuart Bell stated that there was a need to consult other organisations such as Oxford Health and the GP Federations about the locality in which to place services, for example, x ray services. I addition it was necessary to know the proportion of patients currently attending Oxford who could go to local centres.
A member raised the question of whether the beds closed at Wantage Hospital would be reopening in the near future, emphasising that it had now been 2 years since the temporary closure. She urged the OCCG to conduct the awaited review after the beds had re-opened, as the beds were needed within the community. She added her view that the issue concerned the building which, in her view, would require a full public consultation as a major service change. Lou Patten responded that there was a strong clinical case for patients not to be in bed for too long as it caused a rapid loss of independence. She added that consideration would be given in the system review to the use of hospital facilities to their best possible purpose and to suit the needs of the patients. The need was to develop something which was fit for purpose locally. She gave as an example of this the recent establishment of the rapid assessment clinical units at Townlands Hospital, Henley.
A member asked about the situation in relation to the Horton Hospital’s Maternity Unit premises, commenting that, in their view, they were not up to specification. Lou Patten stated that the Horton Hospital had a very vibrant future and there would be facilities provided in the future for patients living in a locality which would be larger than Banbury itself. There would be an opportunity to bid for capital monies, which was a very convoluted process. It had been found to be very helpful if the bid for estates contained a description of how buildings would be utilised. She added her view that this needed to happen with speed.
Lou Patten and Dr Collison were thanked for the report and all were both thanked for their attendance.
The Committee AGREED to request the CCG to prepare, for submission to the next meeting, an outline timetable/Plan for the system capacity review, to include physical assets describing what the population needs were – and also to include, if it was deemed a significant change of service, the plans to consult.