Agenda item

The Select Committee will receive an update from the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) on current issues.

Dr Ian Orpen addressed the Select Committee. A copy of the update can be found on their Minute Book and as an online appendix to these minutes, a summary of the update is set out below.

Tracey Cox – Chief Executive for BaNES, Swindon and Wiltshire CCGs and STP

Tracey Cox has been appointed as Chief Executive of BaNES, Swindon and Wiltshire CCGs and will also lead the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership for the region.  

Tracey formally took up her new position at the start of March. She will oversee closer working between the three local Clinical Commissioning Groups, which will operate with a single senior management team, use their collective resources more efficiently and streamline their respective decision-making arrangements.

Update on A&E performance and national performance targets

Local system performance against the A&E waiting time target (95 per cent of attendees to be seen within four hours) during January was 72.9% and for February 70.6%. This data comes as NHS England considers dropping the four-hour target, which was introduced in 2004.

Instead of aiming to see and treat virtually all A&E patients in four hours, the sickest patients will be prioritised for quick treatment. NHS England wants to ensure that patients who come in to A&E with, for example, heart attacks, acute asthma, sepsis and stroke start their care within an hour.

The changes will be piloted this year and, if successful, could be introduced in 2020.

New targets will be introduced for mental health care with the goal of ensuring that everyone who needs urgent crisis care in the community receives it within 24 hours.

Access to other community mental health services - for children and adults - will be expected in four weeks. This is the first time that these services will have had targets attached to them.

Integrated Health and Care Strategy development

B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire’s Clinical Board is leading a piece of work to create a strategy for a joint approach to health, care and wellbeing across the region.  The Integrated Health and Care Strategy will become the key component of B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire’s Five Year Plan and drive many of the changes which need to be implemented in the wider health and care system over the next five years.

A programme of engagement working in conjunction with Healthwatch England will be underway across B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire over the coming weeks to seek the views of local people on a range of health and care issues.

Engaging on our local plans following publication of the Long Term Plan

In January NHS England published its Long Term Plan, which sets out key priorities and ambitions for the service over the next ten years. Over the coming months, the NHS in B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire will be working with patients, the public and partners – including local councils, the voluntary and community sector and social care – to develop a local plan for the next five years.

The public are invited to share their views via two surveys; one which asks for suggestions about how to give people more control of their care and a second that explores how organisations can provide better care for people with conditions such as heart and lung disease, dementia and autism.

During March and April Healthwatch in B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire will also be out and about across the region listening to views on how:

• Services could be improved and preventative measures to help people age well
• GP practices can work more closely together and with other services (such as hospitals, pharmacies, mental health and social care) - as primary care networks - to improve care for patients. 

Diary Date – AGM

The CCG’s AGM will take place on the morning of Thursday 13 June 2019 at Somerdale Pavilion, Keynsham.

Councillor Robin Moss asked if he were confident that AWP would be able to meet the targets regarding mental health referred to in his update.

Dr Orpen replied that there is a long history of a good working partnership between B&NES and AWP and that a Mental Health Review had concluded recently.

Councillor Tim Ball explained that he had been informed that during the Christmas 2018 period two heart patients spent at least 24 hours in a corridor within the RUH.

Dr Orpen acknowledged that this will have been stressful for all concerned and said that spare capacity in general on site is limited.