Agenda item

Mr Jason Seez, Deputy Chief Executive and SRO for Redevelopment at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (THH), apologised for the THH Chief Executive, Ms Patricia Wright, not being in attendance.  The Co-Chairman, Councillor Palmer, thanked Mr Seez for attending the meeting and hoped that Ms Wright would be able to attend the next meeting. 

With regard to the performance of the Trust, the report had focussed on four distinct areas: quality, access, people and finance.  The key to improvement would be to get all of these areas moving in the right direction at the same time.  Over the last year, significant inroads had been made to improving quality with two of the licence conditions imposed by the CQC being lifted in July 2021.  This had been testament to the hard work of the THH staff who had been driving the improvements. 

Insofar as access was concerned, there had been a national focus since April 2021 on elective recovery.  THH had continued to provide elective care during the second wave of the pandemic and a plan was in place to reduce and eliminate long waiters by 2022/2023.  Consideration would be given to how resources could be shared across hospitals to help catch up with elective care. 

Since April 2021, pressure on Hillingdon’s Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) had been increasing and performance against the 4-hour target had deteriorated.  Work was now underway to assess how people were accessing the services and Hillingdon Health and Care Partners (HHCP) was looking at a joined-up approach with regard to access to UEC. 

With regard to people, Mr Seez noted that THH staff were tired.  Many had carried forward a lot of leave from the 2020/2021 financial year into 2021/2022 as they were unable to take time off because of the pandemic.  It would be important to communicate how hard these staff had been working and to prioritise how valued they were. 

THH had had financial issues in the last year and the Trust had been working hard with national partners to get back on track and in control of the finances.  The Trust had been put on the Financial Recovery Programme (formerly Special Measures) and would be putting a three-year financial recovery plan in place. 

Mr Tony Zaman, the Council’s Corporate Director Social Care and Health, noted that a large number of staff had been moving around between the NHS, local authority, care sector and other partners.  It was suggested that a deeper dive would be needed to address this issue to ensure stability within the workforce with regard to the recruitment, retention and integration of staff. 

Mr Seez advised that all partners should be proud of the progress that had been made with regard to the hospital development project.  Support for the new build had been wide ranging. 

In 2019, the Government’s Health Infrastructure Plan had shortlisted the development of 40 new hospitals, which had included Hillingdon.  Hillingdon had been identified as one of the pathfinders which would be the first eight of the 40 new hospitals to be built.  These pathfinders had adopted an open book approach and were collectively working to find ways of standardising the design of the buildings that would then inform the remaining 32 hospital builds.  A design review had been undertaken in the summer and the latest design (which incorporated as much of the national design as possible) would be reviewed with Planning officers.  It was noted that the design became a bit more blocky with the Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) criteria. 

The Board was advised that MMC was a positive move and clinicians had been able to drive design and coadjacencies such as paediatrics and maternity services, and A&E and UTC.  The design had now progressed from the 1:500 plans to the 1:200 plans and had incorporated learnings from the pandemic.  The latest design had been understood by clinicians and translated into a capital value. 

The Green Book guidance issued by HM Treasury on how to appraise policies, programmes and projects included the submission of a Strategic Outline Case (SOC), Outline Business Case (OBC) and Full Business Case (FBC).  Hillingdon’s OBC was currently in progress and it was hoped that, by working with partners, it would articulate how the new build would fit in with the wider health and care needs of the Borough.  The OBC would be submitted to the centre in the spring of 2022 at the same time as the submission of the planning application. 

Mr Seez advised that it would be important to maintain the momentum which would be key to delivery.  A decamp and enabling plan to clear the site was underway and the modular north and modular south buildings were already in place.  It was anticipated that the site would be ready for demolition in 2022 and build-ready by 2023. 

A focus group had been held with Friends of the Earth, a public exhibition had been held and feedback had been received – it was noted that a lot of feedback had been received in relation to parking.  Mr Seez was conscious that any further public engagement would need to hear from those who had not yet engaged and from those who might be disadvantaged. 

Professor Ian Goodman, Borough Medical Director for Hillingdon at NWL CCG, noted that around 85% of patients using Hillingdon Hospital lived in the Borough.  The new hospital build was not going to be just about bricks and mortar, it would be about building new ways of working.  Hillingdon was already ahead of the game with regard to place-based partnerships and would need to build on this to make the partnerships even stronger. 

Dr Sharon Daye, the Council’s Interim Director of Public Health, queried how the population needs identified within the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment had been incorporated into the design and use of the new build.  Mr Seez advised that his experience of building new hospitals meant that he understood the importance of being able to incorporate agility into the building.  He was aware that, over time, the way that partners worked together would change and that there would be changes to other things such as technology.  Mr Seez’s team knew how to get a business case approved, that the building that needed to be as flexible as possible and that this was being highlighted to the centre. 

Ms Caroline Morison, Co-Chairman and Managing Director of HHCP, advised that there had been more focus over the last year and that consideration now needed to be given to how digital solutions sat within the community and how this spanned other NHS partners.  A partnership model would need to be put in place to gain benefits and a responsive ability to come back with a strategic response. 

RESOLVED:  That the update be noted.