An update will be given at the meeting.
Minutes:
Stuart North, Chief Executive at Bury CCG and Dr Kiran Patel Chair of the CCG gave an update on the progress of the Healthier Together reconfiguration that was currently being developed across Greater Manchester.
The Healthier Together consultation had been due to commence across Greater Manchester in January 2014. Following a review of the work required it had been decided that the consultation would start later in the year to allow for the model options to be developed fully whilst working with all partners involved including patients and professionals. It was anticipated that the consultation would start toward summer 2014 but conversations were already underway regarding the options.
It was widely recognised that there was a need to the way that health and social care services were provided with people living longer and many with multiple long term conditions, expectations growing and services being fragmented. It was anticipated that there would be both local services and specialist services with patients at the centre. Expertise would be pooled to develop centres of excellence which would improve outcomes and patient experience.
The Healthier Together reconfiguration plan would also need to consider wider services such as Primary Care, Community Services and Integrated Care to ensure that all changes to service provision complemented any other changes happening across the whole health and social care landscape.
It was reported that views were being gathered and communities updated on the issues of joining up health and social care services, enhancing GP and community services and transforming hospital services. The
There would be a number of events held across the borough to enable engagement with as many people as possible including attendance at each Township Forum meeting.
Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised:-
· Councillor Bury referred to the fact that Healthier Together was just one part of service redesign and that a lot was also being done at a local level and asked how the two would work together.
Stuart North agreed that the situation was challenging and explained that due to the current financial situation some providers were having to make changes to the way that they worked. The CCG was asking them to go along the same direction of travel as Healthier Together. The challenges were the same for everybody and all were working towards the same end goal with the patient central.
· Councillor Simpson referred to the 5 year plan and explained that it was difficult to envisage this due to the lack of finances.
Stuart explained that it was challenging. NHS England had published information in relation to funding that CCGs should receive and this had shown that Bury was the lowest/worst funded CCG in the north West region. Work was being carried to try and rectify this situation with NHS England being lobbied and the situation being highlighted as much as possible.
· Councillor Walker explained that he had recently attended a Joint Health Scrutiny Meeting where it had been reported that pre operation assessments and gynaecological services would be moved to Royal Oldham Hospital and asked what had happened to the 2 corridors of care model that had been discussed some time ago.
Stuart reported that no decision had been made about the two services mentioned being provided at Royal OldhamHospital, this was just a proposal at the moment. The decision on this would be reviewed in February. Stuart stated that he would take any concerns raised in relation to this issue back to John Saxby, Chief Executive at Pennine Acute NHS Trust.
· Councillor Parnell referred to the funding gap and the formula used and asked how funding was calculated.
Stuart explained that funding was worked out based on the population mix but there are a number of different formulae available and depending on which is used can make a difference.
· Councillor O'Hanlon asked once the changes are in place and specialist areas are based in one or two locations across the region, how many people from Bury will have a condition that won't be served by their local hospital.
Dr Patel explained that there are currently 10 acute surgical services across Greater Manchester, this would be reduced to 4 or 5. Acute medicine would still be available at all sites and it was anticipated that stroke services would be served at 3 and cardio at 1. It would not be possible to determine at this point how many Bury residents would be affected as there were no clear options set out as yet.
· Councillor Bury stated that it was difficult when discussing changes in service provision as it was automatically assumed that it would lead to hospital closures.
· Councillor Walker referred to patients being discharged more quickly from hospital than they would previously have been and would therefore be relying on rehabilitation and support services provided by the council. Councillor Walker asked how this would be co-ordinated if a patient was at a hospital in another town.
Linda Jackson reported that a group from all of Adult Care Services across Greater Manchester was in the process of looking at a solution to this issue and a report with their findings and recommendations was due to be presented to the Greater Manchester CCG in February 2014.
Dr Patel also explained that this type of discharge was already undertaken where services had already been centralised.
· Councillor O'Hanlon asked what would happen if the model didn't deliver the desired outcomes and whether there were any other plans to fall back on if this was the case.
It was explained that as services were being developed there would be the opportunity to change anything that wasn't working as well as expected. The clinical outcomes would show lives saved and there would also be other factors such as length of stay in hospital and patient satisfaction.
· Councillor Bury asked when there would be feedback available from the Radcliffe Demonstrator.
Stuart reported that some early statistics would be available from April or May 2014.
It was agreed
That Dr Patel and Stuart be thanked for their presentation.