Agenda item

The Chairman noted that the Board had been keen to see historical context around the figures that were included in the report.  It was pleasing to note that, since opening in October 2018, Grassy Meadow Court extra care housing scheme had provided an alternative to care home admission for 8 people and that 63 of the 88 units had now been filled.  It was anticipated that Park View Court would open April 2019, providing a further 60 extra care housing units.  The Chairman had recently shared information about these scheme’s with a Councillor from Surrey County Council. 

The NHS Long Term Plan set out the Government’s requirements for the population’s health and care needs from April 2020.  As the NHS Plan would run for five years, it was important that partners agreed a single year plan for the Borough to cover the 2019/2020 interim period.  It was recognised that the final version of this local plan might need to be reported to the Board for sign off at its next meeting on 25 June 2019.

Ms Sarah Tedford, Chief Executive at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (THH), advised that the Trust had been working hard to refine discharge processes and had been working with community health services on home of choice discharges (in relation to care home placements).  Support was also being provided to facilitate discharges from hospital earlier in the day which would then have a lesser impact on other providers. 

Although there had been an increase in the number of A&E attendances over the winter period, there had not been an increase in the number of hospital admissions.  This had helped in not adding pressure to the subsequent number of discharges that would be needed.  However, performance against seven day metrics at Hillingdon Hospital was not on track.  Whilst there had been an improvement in weekend discharges within the surgery department, there had been a reduction in performance against the other seven day metrics. 

It was noted that HCCG had asked Healthwatch Hillingdon to revisit the work that it had previously undertaken in relation to hospital discharge.  To enable the improvements that had been implemented to take effect, the start of this work would be delayed until later in the year. 

It was agreed that it would always be lower risk to keep someone in hospital rather than moving them on.  As such, consideration needed to be given to focussing on the back end of service provision.  Ms Tedford confirmed that THH was focusing on the back end with initiatives such as discharge to assess.  Although these programmes were helping to improve patient flow through the hospital, further work was still needed.

RESOLVED:  That the Health and Wellbeing Board:

a)    noted the progress in delivering the plan during the Q3 2018/19 review period;

b)   agreed the proposed approach for the 2019/20 BCF plan (paragraphs 26 and 27 of the report); and

c)    agreed to delegate approval of the 2019/20 BCF plan submission to officers in consultation with the Chairman of the Board, the Chairman of the Hillingdon Clinical Commissioning Group's Governing Body and the Chairman of Healthwatch Hillingdon, subject to the assumptions set out in paragraphs 26 and 27 of the report.