The Panel is asked to confirm as a true record the Minutes of the meeting of the Health Liaison Panel held on 9 November 2022 and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Health Liaison Panel held on 9 November 2021  were reviewed by the Panel.  The Panel agreed that they were a true record and authorised the Chairman to sign them.

Members are asked to declare the existence and nature of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests in respect of any item of business to be considered at the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made in respect of items on the agenda.

Updates regarding:

·                     Progress on the new hospital build and any anticipated delay

·                     Staffing challenges and specialist staff vacancies – what is the cost of reliance on agency staff

·                     Ongoing plans for specialist developments and enhanced services at Epsom and St Helier hospitals

·                     Budget and resource allocation

·                     Progress on planned care/elective treatments

·                     Staff vaccination challenges

Speaker: Jacqueline Totterdell – Group Chief Executive Officer, Epsom & St Helier University Hospitals & St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Speaker: James Blythe – Managing Director, Epsom & St Helier University Hospitals Trust

The Chair advised the Guest Speakers would be giving an update on the following:

·                     Progress on the new hospital build and any anticipated delay

·                     Staffing challenges and specialist staff vacancies – what is the cost of reliance on agency staff

·                     Ongoing plans for specialist developments and enhanced services at Epsom and St Helier hospitals

·                     Budget and resource allocation

·                     Progress on planned care/elective treatments

·                     Staff vaccination challenges

Ms Totterdell began by giving the Panel a brief overview of the new Hospital Group of Epsom and St Helier, and St Georges Hospital Trust. She advised that there will be one executive but there will remain two independent boards. Strong Partnership will continue to exist with Surrey Downs Health & Care Partnership (SDHCP) with Thirza Sawtell remaining the leader of ‘Place’ for Surrey Downs.

Ms Totterdell moved on to advise that in respect of estates,  a state-of-the-art building is planned at St Georges for a renal service. This will carry out renal transplants and look after the most unwell patients, but also deliver a network of renal dialysis across South London and Surrey.

They will also be looking at improving the IT infrastructure and investing in an electronic patient record across Epsom and St Helier, and St Georges.

The trusts are working on developing more seamless pathways across specialist areas like cardiology and neurology. Patients will get seen more quickly and be able to access specialist care at St Georges more quickly than they can at present. The Trusts already have 50 specialist consultants working across the Trust and they are working to ensure more joint appointments in areas such as emergency care.

In respect of research, St Georges, and Epsom and St Helier Trusts are one of the biggest recruiters in the field of research. Ms Totterdell commented that they are very proud of this especially considering the recent Covid vaccination trials and the need to find new treatments and drugs.

Finally, Ms Totterdell commented that they are looking to reduce waiting times for both in-patients, and outpatients.

Mr James Blythe updated the Panel on his role within Epsom and St Helier Trust, and his position on the board.

Mr Blythe went on to provide an operational update. At the start of the year, the new variant of Omicron had a significant impact on operations, however not as impacted as in the second wave. Its impact was felt more acutely in respect of staffing. At one point, 8.5% of staff were either off with Covid or needing to self-isolate. This required the re-deployment of staff to keep services running. This situation has stabilised and out of a workforce 10,000 only 95 absences were recorded the week prior.  

Mr Blythe advised that Epsom is still a very busy hospital regardless of Covid and this is especially the case in emergency care across South West London and Surrey.

He touched on being very good as a system that ensuring where possible people can either remain or be treated at home where this is possible. However,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.