Agenda item

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting of the Health Select Commission held on 6^th September, 2018.

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 6^th September, 2018, be approved as a correct record.

Arising from Minute No. 30 (Update on Health Village and Implementation of Integrated Locality Working), information had been received with regard to the number of readmissions to hospital.  The pilot had achieved a number of its objectives including identifying patients at high risk of hospital admissions and using targeted interventions to reduce admissions, similarly, targeting patients on discharge to identify those at risk of readmission and offering support and interventions to reduce readmission.  The GPs Long Term Conditions meeting membership had been expanded to give a more holistic approach to patient care.  There had been no marked increase in readmissions seen and Rotherham continued to have a very strong performance on the readmission rate nationally.

Arising from Minute No. 30 (Locality Working):-

(a)  information had been received with regard to the timescales for the implementation of locality working.  The TRFT were working on refreshing the programme/project plan and had brought additional resources to do so.  Although the entire plan could not be shared at the present time as it was still a work in progress and had not been agreed by all partners, the following gave an indication of timescales:-

(b)  with regard to the capturing of more qualitative data, a Friends and Family test was used for the Health Village.  A staff workshop had been held on 19^th September in relation to integrated localities and had included representatives of TRFT, RMBC, VAR, GPs, Mental Health and the CCG.

(c)  with regard to the speed of blood tests and staffing levels in laboratories, this was not something considered within the pilot and there was no specific activity to prioritise diagnostics for those patients.  Some diagnostics such as ECG, Spirometry etc. could be processed quicker as a result of integrated working moving forward if role developments were explored but this was not a feature at the present time.

If delivered from GPs, the tests would be sent to Barnsley where the centralised testing facility was based from the partner laboratory.  The number of staff working in Blood Sciences just employed by Rotherham was 76.

Arising from Minute No. 32 (Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Services), the SY&B ICS funding could not be used to fund local plans in their entirety.  However, a share of the funding could be used to fund the following topic areas which should be present in local plans:-

1)     Reducing suicide and self-harm in Mental Health Services

2)     Reducing self-harm in Community and Acute Services

3)     Suicide prevention in men and/or work with Primary Care

Each area had been asked to draw up a driver diagram and accompanying briefing notes to outline their local plans to spend the funding.  A small working group of partners from the Rotherham Suicide Prevention and Self-Harm Group was carrying this out.

The likelihood was that the funding would be split 80/20% (locality/ICS) with the 80% of locality funding further split based on the rate of suicide across the 5 areas.  Rotherham and Bassetlaw had the highest rates in the ICS area so would receive more funding.  A decision would be made by the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Mental Health and Learning Disability Steering Board.

Arising from Minute No. 33 (The Rotherham Foundation Trust Quality Priorities 2019-20) it was noted that due to the TRFT having had a CQC inspection recently, the background information/rationale requested for choices on the longlist had not been received as yet.  This would be followed up.