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Agenda item

Agenda item

BETTER CARE TOGETHER

To receive a report from the Programme Director Better Care Together (BCT) that provides an update on the progress of the BCT health and social care change programme for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland.

 

A copy of a presentation from the Programme Director Better Care Together giving an overview of the programme is also attached.

Minutes:

The Programme Director Better Care Together (BCT) presented a report that provided an update on the progress of the BCT health and social care change programme for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland.  Members also received a presentation that gave an overview of the programme.

 

During the presentation it was noted that:-

 

a)         The BCT programme was run through a series of work-streams considering a specific area for improvement in quality of care and sustainability. 

 

b)         BCT was in its third year of planning and had now become part of the process to produce a Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) announced earlier this year.  The BCT provided a platform for producing the STP which other parts of the country did not have as their BCT programmes were not as advanced.

 

c)         Work-streams were currently being reconfigured.

 

d)         There was a Partnership Development session later in the week and representatives from the city were encouraged to attend.

 

e)         There had already been changes to some services which did not require public consultation but those involving the overall changes to UHL and the future of the General hospital site, maternity services and the changes to community hospital services would require public consultation before any changes could be made.

 

f)          The consultation process for BCT had been delayed by the introduction of the STP process.  No consultation could take place until the financial elements of the STP had been approved by NHS England later in the autumn.

 

In response to the questions asked by a member of the public earlier it was noted that:-

 

a)         Although the stroke unit was moving to the Evington Centre, this building was still on the General Hospital site.

 

b)         The savings targets identified in the pre- business case were indicative targets to indicate the funding gap that would exist in five years’ time if no service improvements were made.  Treating patients in the acute sector was the most expensive way of treating patients and BCT was looking to provide different ways of coping with the extra demands being made on services within the future financial envelope.     

 

c)         The Mental Health Team were working to improve the availability of mental health services to patients before they reach a crisis point. This involved supporting patients arriving at UHL with early access to mental health services, rehabilitation centres were providing patients with new skills to enable them to integrate back into society more easily. Work was also under way to review out of county placements to see if treatment could be provided nearer to home.

 

Members of the Board received the following responses to their questions:-

 

a)         Prevention and promoting wellbeing were important threads of BCT and as it moved forward federations and the voluntary sector would have an important part to play in shaping services to enable a reduction in patients being admitted to the acute sector.

 

b)         The Police were keen to be involved in shaping mental health services as they had regularly had early engagement in dealing with people involving mental health and safeguarding issues.

 

c)         The Patient Participation and Assurance Group had recently changed its terms of reference and the new Chair was now in place and looking at how BCT could have effective engagement with the public.

 

d)         Over 500 different engagement events had taken place and the feedback received had been reflected in service proposals.   Whilst there had been satisfactory patient participation in the engagement events ways of further strengthening this involvement was being considered.

 

e)         Initial evidence from providing increased community services for patients did not currently show a reduction in acute admissions and BCT was looking to see if different practices in other areas of the country were producing better results.  

 

Members observed that there had been a growing demand on acute services for some time and that more needed to be done to understand the reason for this increase in order to reduce it.  It was noted that this was a national trend and that although current initiatives were currently stemming the tide a radical rethink of how the health system coped with future demands was required.

 

It was reported that there was evidence that health trusts in Dorset, London and South Warwickshire had seen reductions in demand.

 

RESOLVED:

That the Programme Director Better Care Together be thanked for the presentation and the progress to date be noted.              

Supporting documents: