Agenda item

Simon Neville, Northern Care Alliance to provide a verbal update. Presentation attached.

Simon Neville, Transaction Director at the Northern Care Alliance provided an update on the transaction.

In 2016, the Salford Royal Trust was invited to advise and operate services for the Pennine Acute Trust. The Pennine Acute Trust was rated as an inadequate trust by the Care Quality Commission and the Salford Royal Trust was rated as an outstanding trust. In 2017, the Northern Care Alliance was established, which consisted of the Salford Royal Trust and the Pennine Acute Trust.

In 2019, the Pennine Acute Trust’s, Care Quality Commission rating had improved to ‘good’. The improvement suggested that the model was making a difference to patients and could help other struggling organisations in the future. It was decided that the model needed to be consolidated and integrated further.  It was decided that by operating across a larger footprint, the Northern Care Alliance would be able to invest more in digital innovations, that can further drive both quality and productivity gains.

As a part of the consultation, it was agreed that there should be a single hospital service for the city of Manchester, it was agreed that the North Manchester General Hospital component of the trust will be consolidated into the Manchester University Foundation Trust. The Pennie Acute Trust had developed some integrated services across its hospitals such as joint clinical services across Fairfield General Hospital and North Manchester Hospital. It was decided, to ensure the services remain sustainable and safe for patients, the transition would be completed in two phases.

On 1 April 2021, North Manchester General Hospital was separated from the rest of the Pennie Acute Trust. The second phase of the merger is planned to happen on 1 October 2021 where Oldham, Rochdale and Bury Care Organisations will join the Northern Care Alliance. During the interim period, Salford Royal Trust has continued to provide services from Bury, Oldham and Rochdale hospitals, pending the formal merger.

The transactions are being delivered in order to:

·         Help support and complement local integrated healthcare plans

·         To better meet the population health needs of local communities

·         Strengthen community support

·         Deliver more care closer to home

·         Maximise the use of estates on the Pennine Acute Trust footprint

·         Support acute hospital services

·         Strengthen the delivery of both acute and community-based services

To conclude the transaction, the NHS Improvement Oversight Committee agreed that the transaction should go ahead. A letter was received from the Secretary of State who was in agreement with the transaction and was prepared to dissolve the Pennine Acute Trust. Letters are due to be issued to staff to formally notify them of the change and the date of change. Staff members have been through a consultation process.

Beyond 1 October 2021, services will not change. There is a series of service level agreements between Manchester Foundation Trust and the Northern Care Alliance that underpins the separation of services but keeps them in the form that they already are. There will be changes going forward, those service agreements will gradually be unravelled over the next 2 years in a way that doesn’t destabilise services. Indications of where the changes need to take place have been identified, if any of the changes require the relocation of a service it will be subject to a consultation. Patients should not see any changes in the services that they have currently.

Scrutiny arrangements are being discussed; going forward the Northern Care Alliance are keen to maintain their links with local scrutiny committees and proactively engage with local authorities to focus on developing services in each locality.

Simon Neville invited questions and comments from the committee members.

·         Councillor Birchmore questioned who will deal with patient complaints. 

Simon Neville explained that patient complaints will get dealt with locally. The Local Care Organisations of Bury, Rochdale and Oldham have the capacity and competence to deal with governance issues. The agreed governance arrangements are broadly driven by which site clinicians are working from. Clinicians are clear which governance arrangement they are operating under.

Will Blandamer explained that the CCG has a good working relationship with the management team at Fairfield General Hospital, which is responsible for both acute services on the site and community services.

·         Councillor Pilkington questioned if patients would notice the difference with their care once the transaction has been finalised.

Simon Neville explained that patients should not notice a difference with their care.

·         Councillor Pilkington questioned if provisions based at North Manchester General will be built across the Northern Care Alliance sites in the future.

Simon Neville explained that if a service is operating effectively and is in a convenient location for the population, then there would be no need to provide it elsewhere. Over time the Northern Care Alliance may choose to invest in equipment to deliver services in Bury, Rochdale or Oldham rather than referring patients to North Manchester Hospital, but these are decisions for the future.  

·         Councillor Holt questioned if there was a need for the ICT investment.

Simon Neville explained that the Pennine Acute digital systems were underinvested which resulted in poor performance and consequences for patients, in terms of delays. The Northern Care Alliance are spending around £20 million this year to stabilise the Pennine Acute system. The next phase will be to integrate with the Salford Royal Trust and provide a better digital system.

·         Councillor Tegolo questioned if it would be the patient’s choice to attend a certain hospital.

Simon Neville advised that it would be the patient’s choice, this could be discussed with your GP for any hospital referral.

·         Councillor Tegolo questioned if there was an appeal to work at certain hospitals.

Simon Neville explained since the Northern Care Alliance was formed some of the hard to fill vacancies in Bury, Oldham and Rochdale have been recruited to. Generally, people want to work in successful organisations, there are far less vaccines now across the whole group, than in 2016.

Simon Neville explained that being digital is important as this makes more of an attractive working environment.

·         Councillor Holt questioned if staff agree with the transaction.

Simon Neville explained that to most staff it is a change of name. It was explained that staff members think the organisation is better now than it was. The transaction is more of an interest to regulators, than staff members working in the service.