Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel held on 7 January 2014.

The minutes of the Panel held on 7 January 2014 were approved and signed by the Chairman.

Members are requested to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and/or Affected Interests and the nature of those interests, including the existence and nature of the party whip, in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or an Affected Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

There were no declarations of interest.

Any other items which, pursuant to Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Chairman decides are urgent.

There were no items of urgent business.

To receive submissions from members of the public which have been submitted in advance in accordance with the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny.

In accordance with the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny the following question was submitted from Mr Pickersgill, a resident of Bracknell Forest:

When campaigning in the High Street to save Heatherwood many staff signed the petition. Often when we would mention some development staff would say “we are usually the last to hear of these things and often find out in the press”. Does this indicate a problem with communication in the Trust?

The Chief Executive of Heatherwood & Wexham Park Trust stated that it was always difficult to ensure that every member of staff had the most contemporary information before it was aired in any forum external to the Trust. A great deal was done to keep staff informed including:

-Monthly face to face team briefings

- Weekly internal communications

- Chief Executive email to every member of staff

- Use of the Trust’s intranet

- Chief Executive Roadshows on hospital sites

The Chief Executive did not believe that the Trust had a communication problem but stated that as could be expected some staff at Heatherwood had developed a certain level of fear and cynicism given the amount of change the hospital had experienced in recent years.

To consider the actions taken and planned by Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in response to the inspection reports issued on Wexham Park hospital by the Care Quality Commission in July 2013 and January 2014.

The Chairman thanked Mike O’Donovan (Chairman), Philippa Slinger (Chief Executive), and Dr Rob Loveland (Medical Director) of Heatherwood & Wexham Park Trust for attending the meeting. He stated that the reason for this Special Panel meeting was to consider the findings of the second Care Quality Commission (CQC) report from the inspection carried out in October 2013.

The first report from CQC inspectors was made in July 2013 with enforcement action taken. The Panel had held a special meeting on 19 August 2013 to discuss with the Trust the plan of action that had been issued by the Trust to address the concerns raised by the inspection report. The Care Quality Commission led a further inspection in October last year. That report was now the subject of this meeting.

Whilst the CQC had recognised that there had been improvements in some areas they had served the trust with a further six warning notices with failure to meet eight essential standards.

Clearly this was a very serious situation and the Chairman made the point that as elected members their duty and concerns revolved around their residents and the treatment that they receive in local hospitals. He also advised that the Panel would be writing both to Monitor and the Care Quality Commission once they had digested and considered the answers given that evening.

The Chairman asked of Mr O’Donovan: When you attended the Panel meeting in August, you said that the board needed to be more forthright about the speed at which changes and improvements were being made. You went on to to explain that the board needed to be more focussed on what was going on at ward level and needed a more granular breakdown of issues. Monitor’s Regional Director has said publically that, “Monitor is concerned about long standing issues at the trust such as inadequate nursing care and poor hygiene standards. They have failed to be resolved despite the implementation of a previously agreed recovery plan.”

Was the Board satisfied that the Trust was making good enough and fast enough progress towards giving adequate health services to its patients?

Mr O’Donovan stated that he was never happy that progress was being achieved fast enough; there were some issues that had already been resolved but others could not be resolved in a short time period and would take weeks or years to change, such as the culture at the Trust or the consistency of service across the Trust.

One of the galvanising effects of the CQC report had been to identify particular areas of the Trust that were in need of improvement, these areas had now been targeted.

The Chairman stated, Mr O’Donovan you admitted that there was a culture that centred on staff attitude and behaviour. You went on to say, ‘The Trust would need to define clearly to staff how culture needed to be changed. A robust system of measure needed to be in place and the Trust needed to be stronger at enforcing and implementing change”. Reading  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

13 March 2014

13 March 2014