Agenda item

The Chair will provide feedback from the recent Consultation Meeting held in Birmingham on 9 October to which Scrutiny Chairs and Healthwatch representatives had also been invited.

The Chair will also provide feedback on the NHS England roadshow event held in Leicester on 24 October 2014 together with and East Midlands’ event to be held on 30 October 2014.

A copy of the Consultation Document issues for the review is attached.  The consultation started on 15 September 2014 and will end on 8 December 2014.

The Chair provided feedback from the recent Consultation Meeting held in Birmingham on 9 October to which Scrutiny Chairs and Healthwatch representatives had also been invited.

The Chair also provided feedback on the NHS England roadshow event held in Leicester on 24 October 2014 together with and East Midlands’ event held on 30 October 2014.

A copy of the Consultation Document issued for the review was previously circulated to Members for information.  The consultation started on 15 September 2014 and will end on 8 December 2014.  Comments on the consultation document should be submitted by 5pm on 8 December 2014.

The Chair stated that:-

·         The event at Birmingham was attended by the NHS Review Team and outlined the position in relation to the national standards and the current progress with the review.

·         The event had been useful to improve the understanding of the review and he felt that, whilst the initial engagement process had been good, the continuing engagement with parties appeared poorer.  Also some of the promotional work could be better as some of the venues and publicity for the events were poor.

·         The Chair felt that the focus of the Commission’s consideration of the review should be to determine if NHS England were fulfilling the obligations laid down on them by the findings issued by the Independent Review Panel.

·         The Chair was attending the County Council’s Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee on 12 November 2014 when John Holden, the Review Director, was attending the meeting to discuss the Review.

·         It appeared that UHL were developing discussions with Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital to develop a two site option for delivering congenital heart services.

Kate Shields, Director of Strategy, UHL NHS Trust stated that:-

·         The Trust Board were committed retaining congenital cardiac services.

·         One of the national standards would require the Trust to increase the number of operations from 200 to 500 per year and the Trust was in discussions with Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Northampton Hospital and Burton on Trent’s George Elliott Hospital to see if these could be achieved through a network approach.

·         Co-location of services could be a crucial tipping point in the Review for the Trust; and the Trust was looking urgently on how the children’s and adult’s services could be separated.

·         Informal discussions were taking place with NHS England in relation to the 2016/17 deadline to see whether there could be any leeway as the Trust would prefer to propose an interim solution in preparation for moving into a purpose built children’s facility when the current redevelopment of Leicester Royal Infirmary site was completed.

·         Communication with staff on the implications of the review and the Trust’s response was ongoing but it was clear that staff wanted certainty in the direction of travel.

·         The Trust were working in a collaborative manner to secure the best services for the future.  Discussions with Northampton and Peterborough NHS hospital trusts, where patients traditionally travelled to Great Ormand Street Hospital in London, were on-going to develop the possibility of a South East Midlands Collaboration of Providers.

The Healthwatch representative indicated that he would like to see a due regard assessment of any proposals for the review to identify their impact of the different populations that would be affected.

In response, the Director of Strategy indicated that she would like to see the issue of equity have a higher priority in the review so that appropriate care could be provided as near to the patient’s home as possible; as this would be beneficial to both patients and their families.

RESOLVED:

                        That the update on the Review be noted.