Agenda item

11.05

To receive a report from Dr Ben Riley, Executive Managing Director - Primary Care and Community Services, Oxford Health, in respect of the closed inpatient unit at Wantage Community Hospital.

As a follow-up to its resolution at its November meeting. The Committee received a report from Dr Ben Riley, Executive Managing Director – Primary Care and Community Services, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, in respect of the closed inpatient-bedded unit at Wantage Community Hospital and the related proposed changes to community services within Oxfordshire.

The Committee was reminded that the situation at Wantage Community Hospital was inherently interlinked with the proposed redesign of community inpatient and intensive community support services across Oxfordshire. It was reminded that whilst there was a direction of travel to treat patients in their own homes, if required local Wantage residents could still undergo rehabilitation at a neighbouring community hospital. The Committee were reminded that, as it stood a number of services were being piloted out of the rooms at the Community Hospital, including Ear, Nose and Throat services (ENT), audiology, consultant-led ophthalmology and mental health services, as of Autumn 2021.

As a prelude to formal engagement and consultation, the Integrated Care Board and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, had offered a co-produced pre-engagement stakeholder workshop to the Wantage Town Council Health Sub-Committee in order to reengage, review the lessons learnt from previous engagements and push forward the decision on which services should be provided at the hospital.

Members raised that the national move towards virtual wards needed to be accompanied with adequate care-support for family members, who shouldn’t be required to provide wrap-around care. Moreover, it was noted that virtual wards required risk management and clinical culture change; and it was acknowledged that changes to mental health services in the last few decades offered insight of how settings for services could be transitioned.

Committee members questioned whether the main driver for the redesign of community services was in fact the financial sustainability of services and cost savings. It was reaffirmed by NHS partners that there should be emphasis on achieving value for money by partnership working and making use of technology. However there also needed to be a coherent overarching vision relation to inpatient bed provision, settings for care and where interventions would take place. It was also noted that the Integrated Care System was working with an academic in order to create a planning tool to use the currently available raw data to measure and predict demand for community services provision.

The Committee raised questions in respect of wider-workforce issues and the role of paid carers in the system. It was acknowledged that pay, property prices, developmental opportunities, and leadership and culture were all factors which influenced recruitment and retention. Furthermore, the Committee were reassured that the County Council valued a personalised care offering and did not commission 15-minute care calls for personal care and paid one of the highest rates for homecare across the country; which has in turn attracted new providers into the County. Furthermore, for its Live Well at Home contract the Council commissioned the service on a ‘patch’, basis which reduced the time carers spent travelling.

RESOLVED that

                     I.        Cllrs Barrow, Champken-Woods, Hanna and Haywood form a sub-group to consider the Substantial Change Assessment Form on the Community Inpatient Unit at Wantage Community Hospital; and

                    II.        The offer of a co-produced, pre-engagement workshop to the Wantage Town Council, Health Sub-Committee be noted.