Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting.

The minutes of the Health Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 5 April 2022 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

Verbal Report

The Director of Commissioning Strategy and Delivery at TVCCG and the Director of Public Health for South Tees will provide the Scrutiny Panel with an overview of the main service areas within their organisation’s respective remits and an outline of the key priorities, issues and challenges for the year ahead.

The Director of Commissioning, Strategy and Delivery at Tees Valley CCG provided the scrutiny panel with information on the main areas within the CCG’s remit and an outline of priorities, key issues and challenges for the year ahead. The following information was provided:

· On 24 December 2021 the NHS 2022/2023 priorities and operational planning guidance was released with a more detailed guidance document released on 14 January 2022. The guidance document set out the NHS’ priorities for the year ahead, which was detailed in the presentation and covered a broad range of responsibilities that the NHS had been asked to implement over the 2022/2023 period.

· The North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board NENC ICB was set to replace the CCG’s, from 1 July 2022, as the NHS commissioner for health care services. A number of key priorities had been identified in order to assist in the transition from one organisation to the other. This included rising to the challenges of restoring services, meeting the new care demands and reducing the care backlogs that were a direct consequence of the pandemic.

· Although services had been paused or suspended completely during the pandemic in the first quarter of 2022/2023 a significant amount of work had been undertaken to reduce the number of longest waiters i.e. those waiting over 104 weeks for surgical intervention. All of these patients had now received treatment, which was a real step forward for the Tees Valley and the broader NENC system.

· Across Teesside efforts were being made to ensure that no patients would wait longer than 72 weeks for treatment and it was expected that this standard would be achieved during the next few months. Prior to the pandemic the target time had been 18 weeks from the point of referral for surgical intervention, the impact of the pandemic had been significant but waiting times were reducing.

 · There was a clear expectation that all health and care staff would be supported to maintain good health and wellbeing, with action also being taken to recruit new staff where vacancies arose. The retention of staff was a further key priority.

· There was a strong focus on improving timely access to primary care services to improve outcomes and address the health inequalities in and across the Tees Valley and Middlesbrough.

· Work was currently being undertaken to improve the responsiveness of the urgent and emergency care services in place, under the banner of a ‘Case for Change’ to consider how the offer could be strengthened across the Tees Valley, with a real focus on the services available across Middlesbrough. Equity of access was a key issue, as there was a real need to ensure people had access to the urgent and emergency care services they needed irrespective of where they lived within the town. 

· There was a real need to accelerate preventative programmes in the Tees Valley, as owing to the high level of inequalities diagnosis of cancer, for example, was often too late in the pathway and only  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21/4

The Democratic Services Officer presented the submitted report. The following information was provided:

· At the start of every municipal year, panel members discussed the topics that they would like to review during the coming year.

· Work programmes were useful as they provided some structure to a scrutiny panel’s activity and allowed for the effective planning and preparation of work.

· Referenced in the report was a list of topics which were anticipated to be of particular interest to the scrutiny panel.

· The topics that had been agreed last year, which had not been investigated were PFI schemes at James Cook University Hospital, Women’s Health and Infant Feeding and Dental Health

· The topical issues referenced in the report were - the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care, the Khan review: making smoking obsolete, mental health care of children and young people post COVID-19.

· The suggestions received for the scrutiny panel’s consideration were – British Sign Language Act 2022, dental health and the impact of COVID-19, women’s health and access to GP services.

· When considering its work programme, the scrutiny panel was asked to ensure that topics agreed for inclusion met the criteria detailed at paragraph 13 of the report.

· A prioritisation aid was included at Appendix 1 to enable Members to determine topics where scrutiny can make an impact, add value or contribute to policy development.

· It was recommended that the scrutiny panel identified two topics it would like to include in its work programme, those would then be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Board for approval.

A Member put forward a suggestion that the scrutiny panel investigated the topic of the quality and accessibility of GP services in the town. With a view to establishing what sort of wait times there were across the town, to consider the key statistics regarding the quality of GP services and the challenges faced locally by GP practices.

A Member made reference to the issue of dental provision and it was highlighted that registering with an NHS dentist was a major issue across the town. A consultation was also currently being undertaken with regard to a possible merger involving three small dental practices in Middlesbrough moving to form part if a super amalgamated dental practice, which would be outside of the town. Provision was therefore a key issue and it was felt that there would be real benefit in the panel considering this topic in 2022/2023. 

A Member commented that it would be useful for the panel to have some information provided on how the new neurological pathway for children was operating and the impact it was having on access to services.

A Member expressed the view that it would be useful to have some degree of investigation into the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) given that there had been some horrifying stories on how the strains on the ambulance service had left some people in desperate situations. It was advised that this issue had been taken up by local  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21/5

Verbal Report

The Democratic Services Officer advised Members a meeting of the Tees Valley Joint Health Scrutiny Committee was held on 8 June 2022 at Roseberry Park Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Members of the Joint Committee were provided with the opportunity to have a tour of the facilities including a visit to the Secure Inpatient Services at Ridgeway, the Adult Mental Health Urgent Care Service and Mental Health Services for Older People provision.

Following the tour a meeting of the Joint Committee was held and the main issue on the agenda was the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley’s (TEWV) NHS Foundation Trust Quality Account document for 2021/2022. Each year the Joint Committee is requested to submit a response to the TEWV Quality Account document. Following the meeting a copy of the Committee’s response was submitted to TEWV, which reflected the discussion and views expressed at the meeting.   

AGREED that a copy of the Tees Valley Joint Health Scrutiny Committee’s response to Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust’s (TEWV) Quality Account for 2021/2022 be provided to all Members of the health scrutiny panel.

The Chair will present a verbal update on the matters that were considered at the meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 27 April and 11 May 2022.

The Chair advised the Panel that at the OSB meeting on 22 April 2022 the Board had considered and discussed the following:

·         Executive Forward Work Programme

·         School Exclusions: Discussion with Secondary Schools Representatives from Middlesbrough Secondary Schools and the Deputy Director, Regional School’s Commissioner for the North Region

·         The Chief Executive's Update

·         The Economic Development, Environment and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel - Final Report - The Green Strategy

·         Scrutiny Chairs Update

A proposed meeting schedule, for the Health Scrutiny Panel, was submitted for the scrutiny panel's consideration.

AGREED That the proposed meeting schedule, for 2022/23, be approved.