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 21 June were submitted and approved as a correct record.

Ian Bennett (Deputy Director of Quality and Safety for South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) will be in attendance to lead the presentation of the Quality Accounts document 2021-2022.

A number of representatives from South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were in attendance to provide the panel with an overview of the Trust’s Quality Accounts document for 2021/2022.

A presentation was given and Members were advised it was hard to overstate the impact Covid-19 had had on acute hospital services. At its peak 1 in 15 staff members were out of action because of Covid and since the start of the pandemic South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had cared for over 7000 Covid-19 patients. This in turn had resulted in a real emphasis being placed on clinical recovery for all of the planned work that had not been taking place at the height of the pandemic.

In respect of the level of investment in the digital strategy it was advised that over £8million had been invested resulting in the removal of over 5 million paper records, which would hopefully enable staff to spend additional time with patients.

Reference was made to the work undertaken by the Trust to strengthen its approach to nutrition and hydration and it was advised that snacks and drinks were now available to patients 24 hours a day. In terms of the transfer of care hub, which had been creased with local authorities the Trust was really proud of the work undertaken with Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, North Yorkshire County Council and Middlesbrough Borough Council.

In respect of the Trust’s current position it was advised that it had recently seen an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases. The main impact had been on people over the age of 75, who had weakened immune systems. It was therefore imperative that the booster programme was widely available, as any increased in community infection rates led to increase in the number of hospital admissions.

Coming out of the height of the Covid-19 pandemic the Trust had revisited visitor arrangements and from 12 July 2022 visiting times had returned to normal – 2pm to 4.30pm and 6pm-8pm on a daily basis. Precautions were, however, still in place and visitors were still wearing masks in high risk areas.

It was emphasised that the staff remain the Trust’s biggest asset and from very early on in the pandemic experienced clinicians took charge. The hospital sites were divided into Covid and non-Covid pathways and the Trust had some of the lowest Covid hospital infection rates in the country. Over the last year 130,000 inpatients had been cared for, 62,000 had been undertaken – with 43,000 of those having been planned operations, which was just as important as urgent care. In the last 2 years 10,000 babies had been delivered and the Community Teams had delivered 2.3million home visits. The Doctors, Nurses and Midwife Teams were fantastic, as were the Estates Teams in ensuring all of the facilities were well managed.

The point was made that it was fantastic that the Trust had been named as one of the top two most improved Trusts in the country for the second year  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21/4

Mark Adams, Director of Public Heath (South Tees) will be in attendance to provide an update to the panel on the Health and Well-Being Strategy, the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and the Annual Report 2021-2022.

Craig Blair, Director of Commissioning Strategy and Delivery at the North East & North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (NENC ICB) will update the panel in respect of the NENC ICB, a new statutory NHS organisation, as launched on 1 July 2022.

The Director of Health (South Tees) was in attendance at the meeting to provide an update to the panel on the Health and Well-Being Strategy, the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and his Annual Report for 2021-2022.

The panel was advised that the Health and Well-Being (HWB) Strategy outlines how the Health and Well-Being Board aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people in South Tees and reduce inequalities. It was emphasised that health inequalities are not the fault of individual people, they are the result of social, environmental, and economic factors. The Strategy aimed to tackle complicated problems which would not be solved by any single agency. The three proposed Strategic Aims were as follows:-

Start Well: Children and Young People have the Best Start in Life

Live Well: People Live Healthier and Longer Lives

Age Well: More people will live longer and healthier lives

The focus would be on working in partnership on cross-cutting principles and delivering its vision through: addressing inequalities, integration and collaboration, use of information and intelligence and involvement of residents, patients and service users. Reference was made to the current JSNA and it was advised that the document was out of date, not particularly strategy and it acted as a compendium of topics rather than a “strategic needs assessment”. The aim in drafting a new JSNA would be to move to mission based approach, which would be goal orientated.

In terms of timescales it was advised that it was intended that the final JSNA would be submitted to the Health and Well Being Board in March 2023. Key areas of action would then be developed under each Goal, with a view to the Health and Well-Being Strategy being collated and approved by the Health and Well-Being Board in June 2023.

Following the presentation Members were afforded the opportunity to ask questions and the following points were raised:-

Reference was made to a decision taken by Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) to contract the cycle centre to Sustrans and away from Environment City and whether this had been the most effective solution. In response it was advised that although there had been a number of discussions held with TVCA in respect of the shared prosperity fund this was an area of work that required further development. The development of a new HWB Strategy provided a real opportunity to develop that relationship with the TVCA.   

A Member of the panel stated that the funding available through the shared prosperity fund was significantly less than that which had been available through the European Development Fund. It was therefore queried as to how it was envisaged that this relationship would work in practice to ensure health remained connected to it as possible. In response it was advised that the projects being undertaken by TVCA needed to be used as a lever to help in reducing health inequalities. However, further work was first required in respect of how the HWB Strategy was developed. 

The Director of Commissioning, Strategy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21/5

The Chair advised the Panel that at the OSB meeting on 19 July 2022 the Board had considered and discussed the following:

·         Executive Forward Work Programme

·         Executive Member Update – Councillor Mieka Smiles – Deputy Mayor and Executive Member for Children’s Services

·         Chief Executive's Update

·         Final Report of the Children and Young People’s Learning Scrutiny Panel – Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

·         Scrutiny Chairs Update

NOTED