Agenda item

Matthew Cole, Director of Public Health, LBBD, presented the Quarter 2 report.  The Board reviewed the overarching dashboard, detail provided on specific areas and discussed several performance and quality issues including:

·  CQC Inspection – The outcomes of the CQC Inspections and the actions being taken where improvements were identified as needed.

The Board was advised that Brookside had reopened to both in and out-patients in September 2016.  Whilst the CQC report on the actions being taken was expected imminently the verbal feedback from CQC had been positive.

The Chair commended NELFT for acting so quickly to resolve the issues that had been raised by CQC.

·  Primary Care – There was still significant variable performance across the area, and this would be a challenge for the STP.  Specific areas for improvement included health checks, diabetes, smoking cessation and vaccinations. 

It was noted that vaccinations work was being undertaken across the three CCGs.

Whilst many GP practices’ performance was good overall or good in some delivery areas, a number were still significantly underperforming.  CCG advised that whilst the Primary Care has some challenges, there was evidence that they can deliver improvements: that had been evidenced by the increased health check rate for people with learning disabilities. 

·  Cancer Treatment and Mortality Rates – A concerted effort was required to improve outcomes for residents and to increase the testing rates, especially amongst the harder to reach individuals. 

The Chair raised the issue of the need to prepare for improved results.  The Chair voiced concern on the providers’ ability to respond if the public are encouraged to come forward and posed a number of questions for the partners to consider.  If the demand increased for screening / testing appointments could the Primary Care / BHRUT meet that demand?  Would the BHRUT be in a situation to handle the subsequent increase in positive or follow-up referral requests, bearing in mind its current appointment backlog?

Cllr Chand, Lead Member of Health and Adult Services Select Committee, LBBD, advised of the in-depth review that the Committee was undertaking regards to Cancer Prevention, Awareness and Early Detection and that the Select Committee would report its findings to the Board in due course.

·  Right to Treatment (RTT) – Were advised that BHRUT had now recommenced reporting their Right to Treatment performance in November and were continuing their actions to achieve the return to 18 week Right to Treatment Standards.

The Board:

(i)  Performance

Reviewed the overarching dashboard and noted the detail provided on specific indicators and raised particular concern on the current underperformance by some GP practices across a number of areas including, health checks, diabetes, smoking, vaccinations and cancer screening and whether the Primary Care sector had the capacity to take on any increase in demand for screening;

(ii)  Quality

(a)  Noted and discussed the outcomes of CQC Inspections and the actions being taken when improvements are identified as needed;

(b)  Commended NELFT’s rapid actions, following their recent CQC Inspection, which had resulted in the reopening of both the in and out-patient services at Brookside and noted that whilst the formal report was expected shortly the verbal feedback by CQC had so far been positive;

(c)  Noted BHRUT’s return to reporting their Right to Treatment performance in November and their continued work to return to 18 week Right to Treatment Standards; and

(iii)  Noted that the Health and Adult Services Select Committee’s review of Cancer Prevention, Awareness and Early Detection would be reported to the Board in due course.