Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence are listed above.

Members of Health Scrutiny Committee are asked to consider whether they have an interest in any of the matters on the agenda and if so, to formally declare that interest.

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

The minutes from the meeting held on 5^th March 2024 are attached for approval.

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 June 2024 were agreed as an accurate record.

Councillor FitzGerald reported that all members had received an email regarding the appointment of a nominated Corporate Parenting Champion from each committee. It was explained that the person would receive training and would be responsible for advocating for Corporate Parenting matters at each committee.

Councillor FitzGerald asked for nominations.

It was agreed:

That Councillors Ryder and Walsh would be the Corporate Parenting Champions for the Health Scrutiny Committee.

Questions are invited from members of the public present at the meeting on any matters for which this Committee is responsible.

There were no public questions.

A period of up to 15 minutes will be allocated for questions and supplementary questions from members of the Council who are not members of the committee.

There were no member questions.

Presentation from Report from Will Blandamer, Deputy Place Based Lead  - NHS GM (Bury) and  Executive Director, Health and Adult Care - Bury Council attached.

Will Blandamer, Deputy Placed Based Lead and Executive Director, Health and Adult Care gave a presentation giving an overview of the Bury Integrated Care Partnership operating model, priorities, NHS performance overview and finance.

The presentation explained that the role of the Health Scrutiny Committee is to;

•      review and scrutinise matters relating to the planning, provision and operation of the health service in the area. 

•      require information to be provided by certain NHS bodies about the planning, provision and operation of health services 

•      require employees, including non-executive directors of certain NHS bodies, to attend 

•      make reports and recommendations to certain NHS bodies and expect a response within 28 days

•      set up joint health scrutiny and overview committees with other local authorities 

•      have a mechanism in place to respond to consultations by relevant NHS bodies and relevant health service providers on substantial reconfiguration proposals

•      have a mechanism in place to deal with referrals made by local Healthwatch 

Bury Integrated Care Partnership describes the joint work of the key partners in Bury to manage and transform the health and care system in Bury and to provide better outcomes for residents and included Bury Council, Northern Care Alliance (inc. Fairfield General, and Community Health Services), Pennine Care Mental Health Trust, Manchester Foundation Trust, NHS Greater Manchester, Primary Care Providers – GPs/pharmacists/dentists/optometrists, VCFA and wider Voluntary Sector, Bury Healthwatch, Persona and other partners.

The Health and Care System in Bury costs about £450 million per year.

Will explained the ambition of the Partnership, set out the Governance arrangements and then explained how the Bury Locality Board fit in with the partnership and the programme of work and priorities for Bury.

There are 10 programmes of work: Urgent Care, Major Conditions including Cancer, Learning Disabilities and Autism, Complex Care, Mental Health, Primary Care, Adult Social Care Transformation, Ageing Well inc. frailty and dementia, Planned care and community services, and End of Life and Palliative Care.

The high level priorities were set out and the 6 obsessions which inform the way the priories are delivered.

It was explained that an integrated neighbourhood team had been established in each of the towns in the borough creating five neighbourhoods and included adults care, community health services and GPs with plans to expand to include other parts of the health and care system. A model of family hubs was being rolled out within the neighbourhood footprint to support children, young people and families and other public services were being aligned on the same footprint with established public service leadership teams in each neighbourhood.

The presentation gave information on the Supra local footprint which had been developed with the Northern Care Alliance and the 4 localities they serve , Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and Salford as well as a partnership meeting with MTF (Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust), and partnership meetings with the 5 boroughs that Pennine Care  Foundation Trust works on.

Information was provided on the GM context including the GM Strategy for Health  ...  view the full minutes text for item HSC.6

Presentation from Will Blandamer, Deputy Place Based Lead, NHS GM (Bury) and  Executive Director, Health and Adult Care, attached.

Will Blandamer gave a presentation giving an update on the elective care and cancer recovery programme.

The presentation included waiting times for appointments, national standards, waiting times for elective care for Bury patients at all providers and comparisons of RTT (referral to treatment) in specialities over 65 weeks and 78 weeks compared to GM.

It was explained that Dermatology, Trauma & Orthopaedic and ENT still have the highest proportion of total Bury Waiters in April. The highest proportion of 65 plus week waits are in Urology and Gynaecology .The highest proportion of 78 plus week waits are in Urology, ENT, Ophthalmology and other- Surgical Services all with 1 waiter.

There were 23 breaches of the 78 week standard at the end of March 2024, 12 of these were due to patient choice, 8 were capacity breaches and 3 were clinically complex.

Diagnostic services performance was good for Bury residents and the NCA were working through challenges.

With regards to performance in relation to cancer diagnosis and treatment it was reported that the Integrated Care Board were working closely with the NCA on access to treatment over 62 and a higher percentage of patients receiving diagnosis within the 28 day Faster Diagnosis Standard.

Will explained that the teledermatology appointments in Salford had gone live in October 2023, the impact on performance was positive with over 1600 patients attending an appointment

The impact was set out as follows; time to first appointment 13-14 days saved, time to FDS communication 7-8 days saved,  FDS performance improved from 49.8% in October to sustained delivery of the standard since December.

The planning objectives and the work programme were set out within the presentation.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised:

·         Councillor Duncalfe asked whether GPs were encouraged to refer patients for elective treatment in locality or whether treatment options further afield were considered.

It was explained that there should be no barriers to where elective services were carried out and all options should be considered.

·         Councillor Boles referred to the current campaign being promoted reminding patients to bring their own medicine when being admitted into hospital and asked if information around this could be shared with elected members.

Will confirmed that this information would be shared after the meeting.

·         Councillor Rubinstein asked whether there was any evidence of figures being manipulated to make it look like waiting times were less than they were.

Will explained that he didn’t believe that this kind of practice was happening across the Northern Care Alliance. There was no evidence to suggest that this occurred. Adrian Crook explained that there were 522,000 patients on waiting lists in Greater Manchester, to manipulate the figures would take a considerable amount of work and there would be no benefit to doing so.

Councillor Tariq stated that if patients were concerned that they had been removed from a waiting list they could contact their local Healthwatch who would support them with any issues.

It was  ...  view the full minutes text for item HSC.7

Verbal update from Steve Senior, Consultant in Public Health.

This item was deferred to a future meeting of the Committee.

Report from Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing attached.

Adrian Crook, Director of Community Commissioning presented a report

Providing members of the Health Scrutiny Committee with details of information relating to compliments and complaints within the Adult Social Care Services.

It is a statutory requirement to produce an Annual Complaints Report relating to Adult Social Care Complaints, received by the Corporate Core Department, Bury Council.

The report relates to the period 1^st April 2023 – 31^st March 2024, and provides comparisons between previous years, as well as detailing the nature, scope and scale of some of the complaints received.

The number of complaints received should be considered in context with the number of people actually having direct contact with Adult Social Care Services (excluding their relatives, friends or carers who might make complaints on their behalf).  The number of people to have direct contact with Adult Social Care Services during 2023/2024 was 8,343.  It is positive that the proportion of people wanting to make a complaint about the services received from the department is low at only 63.

Out of the 63 complaints received, 4 complaints came back to the department to advise they remained dissatisfied, meaning 59 complaints were resolved after the initial response. 

The nature of the complaints were set out within the. There has been a slight increase in complaints relating to ‘conduct of social care staff” (from 6 to 9).  Whilst there has been a slight increase in this area, no particular service area, team or individuals have been highlighted as a concern.

The number of complaints received was also set out by service area. The report has highlighted a slight increase from previous years in complaints for CAD Hub, Choices for Living Well, Prestwich Integrated Neighbourhood Team and the Safeguarding Team. Although the report highlights an increase the numbers are still relatively low, which does not indicate any area of concern.

The timescales to respond to complaints were reported. 49% of the complaints received were responded to within the 20 working day timescales, 27% of complaints were responded to outside of the 20 working day timescales, 13% of those were over 40 working days and 3% of complaints were responded to over 40 working days. Of the complaints responded to outside of the 20 working day timescales all complainants were kept updated on the delay, the reason for the delay and provided with a new response date.

The number of complaints investigated by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has not increased and remained as the previous years of 5 cases in 2023/2024. All five cases received by LGSCO were closed after initial enquiries.

In addition to complaints, the department also records the number of compliments received. The number of compliments received had increased from 601 to 826.

Included within the report were some examples of the positive feedback that had been received.

Members of the Committee were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised:-

·         Councillor Tariq referred to the report  ...  view the full minutes text for item HSC.9

Any other business which by reason of special circumstances the Chair agrees may be considered as a matter of urgency.

Northern Care Alliance JOSC

Councillor FitzGerald updated Members on the work of the Northern Care Alliance Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee. It was explained that Cllr FitzGerald and Councillor Lancaster had attended the last meeting  There was currently one Bury vacancy on the Committee from Labour Group.

Councillor FitzGerald explained that the Committee included Salford, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury working together.  She had reiterated the issue in the ToR about decisions should be made with all LAs represented (not agreed) and more clarification on how it fits with the GMCA level scrutiny.

NCA provide services beyond just the acute hospitals – specialist (Major trauma in Salford) and integrated care in localities. It was explained that the objective of the Joint Committee will be: To scrutinise the generic services provided by the Northern Care Alliance relating to the health of the population in Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and Salford and contribute to the development of policy to improve health and reduce health inequalities in respect of services provided by the hospitals. 

GMCA JHOSC

Councillor FitzGerald had attended the GMCA Joint Health Scrutiny. The Committee had looked at the work plan plus the service reconfiguration around Adult ADHD and IVF. 

Both of these have come up in this scrutiny meeting and they are the first steps in the harmonisation / alignment of provision being equitable across GM.

It was explained that other areas for review are: children’s ADHD, Specialised commissioning cardiac and arterial vascular surgery, specialist weight management, diabetes structured education & children’s autism.

Work of the Health Scrutiny Committee

Members of the Committee were asked to discuss the work of the Health Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Gold referred to Ambulance services and asked whether the work of NWAS was something that the Committee could look at.

Will reported that there was an ongoing piece of work to explore alternatives to admissions. Each of areas work slightly differently. NWAS were carrying out a live audit looking at live admissions. Work was also being carried out with regards to end of life and palliative care with care homes and NWAS and how to work with care homes to allow their residents to die with dignity in their home.

Will reported that urgent care was included within the forward plan.

Other areas highlighted for possible inclusion were;

·         End of life care

·         National funding to primary care to extend the range of clinicians within GP practices

It was reported that Primary Care was included on the work programme.