Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Dawood, Gill and Joshi (Leicester City Council), Mr. A. Bailey, Mr. W. Liquorish and Ms. B. Newton (Leicestershire County Council).

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business on the agenda and/or declare that Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act applies to them.

The following members declared general personal non-prejudicial interests: -

Mr. A. Bailey- His son and daughter-in-law were employees of the Leicestershire Partnership Trust

Councillor Hall- Employee of University Hospitals Trust Leicester

Mr. J. Moore- His daughter was a nurse employed by the NHS.

The minutes of the meeting of the Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 25 June 2007 have been circulated and the Committee is asked to confirm them as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 25^th June 2007, as previously circulated, be agreed as a correct record.

Minute 10 – Regional Payroll Contract Update

The Chair read the following statement relating to payroll services to University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust: -

“Since the beginning of the new payroll contract in April this year, we have been working with Capita, the provider, to overcome problems experienced.

Problems had included processing errors and inadequate call centre response to the volume of calls received and communications issues. In April, there were somewhere in the region of 4000 staff with payroll queries. That represents about 33% of our workforce.

In recognition of the importance of the issue, we have worked intensively with Capita, including holding multiple weekly teleconferences, one of which is attended by our Chief Executive and their Managing Director. We are working closely with them to ensure that improvement plans will be robust for the future and cover all aspects of service.

Through this work, there is now a significant reduction in the number of queries received at each payroll and the number continues to reduce. Just prior to the August monthly payroll, approximately 6% of staff had outstanding queries. So there has been significant improvement. This is still an unacceptable level however and there is still some way to go to reach a ‘normal’ payroll level of queries that is about 2-3%of staff.

The response time to queries arising is again improving, but we are continuing to work with Capita to address this issue with a view to expected turn around standards being achieved on most queries within the near future.

While working constructively with Capita, we continue to monitor the contract performance closely.

We are aware that there are a number of staff who remain frustrated with the length of time taken to resolve some of their queries and we are working in detail through these with Capita. We apologise, together with Capita, for these remaining frustrations, but assure staff that we continue to work intensively to resolve any outstanding issues.”

Members noted the content of the statement but expressed the view that in their opinion 2-3% of payroll queries was still felt to be too high.

Minute 9 – Healthcare Acquired Infection at University Hospitals Leicester

Pauline Tagg, Acting Chief Executive, UHL Trust, stated that UHL had secured £1.1m to purchase patient bedside equipment that had proved to be very timely, as new Government guidelines suggest that hospital patients should have their own equipment, and not share. More bed space was being created in hospitals and some areas were being converted into store areas to house linen trolleys and other large equipment.

Regarding the uniform policy in Leicester, staff were encouraged to not wear uniform to and from hospital, although some staff had to. There was no evidence to support the notion of germs/infection being transferred via uniforms. It was suggested that staff could wear their uniform under a full length coat and then go straight to work and straight home again. Hand hygiene was however important and staff used a 6-stage process  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

Barry Day, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive, Leicester Partnership Trust will be in attendance to provide the committee with an update on the reasons behind the recent bed closures, the immediate impact this has had on services and how the needs of service users are being met in the community.

Tim Rideout, Chief Executive, Leicester City Primary Care Trust, will be in attendance to address the Committee with regard to the PCT Local Health Services Review.  A representative from the University Hospitals of Leicester will also be in attendance to provide background information relating to the decision not to continue with the Pathways project.

Prior to discussion on this item the Chair read out two brief statements that related to the recent retirement of Peter Reading that conveyed the best wishes of the Chair, Vice-Chair and members of the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Mandy Ashton, Director of Quality Assurance/Deputy Chief Executive, Pauline Tagg, Acting Chief Executive, and Martin Hindle, Chairman of the Leicester City NHS Primary Care Trust attended the meeting.

Members were informed that, due to greatly increased costs of some £200m, the Pathway Project was felt by the Trust to be no longer value for money for both the Trust and the public. The options available to the Trust were to press on with the Project or to pull out, the Trust opted to pull out. Since this decision had been taken support had been received from Trust staff, doctors, nurses, unions, media and the public.

Members were informed that the Trust had £70m available to undertake post Pathway works to buildings. Work was being carried out with the Trust Board and the Facilities Team, together with colleagues in Primary Care on the Next Steps Review and to identify what work was required in the short term to buildings.

A brief presentation on the Next Steps Review was given that illustrated the principles for developing the vision through to the engagement and the consultative process.

The general principles for developing the Partnership for the next 5, 10, 15 years were outlined. The first part of the process was described in the Project structure and would comprise eight separate groups, each concentrating on a specific area of work, and each group comprising the best specialists available from within the PCT’s and UHL. Each group would be responsible for the consultation process between the specialists and the public. The eight groups would report to a Project Executive that would report to the Project Board.

The engagement process would be initially in two stages. The first stage would take place between September 2007 and January 2008 and would comprise the eight groups meeting to undertake engagement and pre-visioning work. The second phase would take place between February 2008 and March 2008 and would comprise pre-consultation on the vision and values. Formal consultation would be carried out over a 12 week period between April and June 2008. Analysis of the responses and preparation of the recommendations would be carried out in July 2008.

At this point questions were invited from Members.

1)     The move to community care was welcomed, together with additional funding. However there were concerns as to whether adequate skills were in place across the community.

Assurances were sought that sufficient time and funding would be allocated to ensure that the necessary skills were in place in the community to ensure that the required levels of care could be given. It was essential that Leicester had excellent acute care facilities.

Mandy Ashton stated that currently excellent facilities within the City had been provided, or were being provided, as part of the Local  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

The Committee will receive a position statement from the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) on the relocation of the County Air Ambulance Service.

Members received an update on the current position regarding the air ambulance service to Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland.

Members were informed that the current East Midlands Airport base was not ideal from the point of view of the increases in aircraft activity at the airport and which often led to delays in the air ambulance taking off.

The air ambulance was provided by registered charities and these had recently met to decide the future provision. One of the charities however had not been quorate and therefore a decision was still awaited.

Assurances were given that the levels of air ambulance cover would not be reduced, but rather an enhanced level of cover would be provided.

Members noted the current position.

The Committee is asked to agree a date for the next meeting. 

It was noted that the previously agreed date for the next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee on Monday 26^th November was not convenient for some members. It was therefore agreed that a revised date would be circulated.

The Chair declared the meeting closed at 12.18pm.