Agenda item

Cllr Hanna will provide a verbal update on relevant issues since the last meeting.

The Committee is recommended to NOTE the Chair’s update having raised any relevant questions.

There are TWO Key documents attached to this item:

1.    The Letter sent on behalf of HOSC to the Secretary Of State for Health on Dentistry Provision in Oxfordshire.

2.    A document containing a response from the Department of Health to a letter sent on behalf of HOSC on Primary Care within Oxfordshire.

The Chair highlighted the following points in relation to developments that have occurred since the last meeting on 23 September:

The Chair explained that a document was compiled which collated the views of the Committee on the recent Health and Wellbeing Strategy Update. This was shared with the Committee members and was also shared with relevant Public Health Officers.

The Chair referred to the Short Stay Hub Beds in Henley and expressed that the Committee would be closely looking into the reasoning behind the closure of these beds, as well as any other Short Stay Hub Beds within Oxfordshire.

The BOB ICB Place Director explained to the Committee that the closure of the Short Stay Hub Beds was a decision that had already been made, and that these were beds that were wrapped up in the broader Better Care Fund and Winter Plan. The Director of Adult Social Care added that these were not NHS beds, and that they were system beds that flexed up and down within the County, with no requirement to go into consultation when doing so. It was also specified that these were beds that were commissioned by the County Council, and that the closures were a part of the Oxfordshire Way of helping people to be supported in their own homes. It was also explained to the Committee that 17 hub beds were also closed in the North of the County.

The Chair referred to a national Healthwatch report which was published a week prior to the Committee’s meeting, which explained that whilst there was support for being cared for at home, there were some concerns raised in terms of what was heard in surveys from families. The BOB ICB Place Director confirmed that there had been an increase in the amount of hours that the system was dedicating toward delivering care in peoples’ homes, and that there had also been a reduction in the amount of people delayed in hospital beds, with more people being discharged and receiving care at home than in the past. The Committee were therefore informed that the closure of Short Stay Hub Beds had to be seen in the broader context of a Countywide Urgent and Emergency Care programme.

The Committee emphasised that it was pivotal for there to be clear communication behind the reasoning behind the closure of Short Stay Hub Beds as well as details of the alternative services that patients would be expected to receive upon being discharged from hospital. The Executive Director of Healthwatch Oxfordshire also added that whilst this new model of care may be a manifestation of good practice, there was an urgent need for clearer communications with the wider public in relation to this.

The Committee AGREED to the following recommendation:

1.    To hold an item in its extra meeting on 16 January 2024, to look into the reasoning behind the closure of Short Stay Hub Beds, as well as to receive specific and broader insights into the process of discharging and any national directives or impacts assessments that have been conducted as part of the closure of any such beds within Oxfordshire.