Agenda and draft minutes

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.

Councillor Liz Frost (Epsom and Ewell Borough Council) declared an interest on the grounds of her employment with the NHS.  Councillor Liz Frost had received a dispensation from Epsom & Ewell Borough Council’s Standards Committee to speak and vote on matters related to health.

The Panel is asked to confirm as a true record the Minutes of the meeting of the Health Liaison Panel held on 14 December 2017 and 13 March 2018 and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The Minutes of the Meeting of the Health Liaison Panel held on 13 March 2018 were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

Andrew Demetriades, Joint Acute Sustainability Programme Director (for Sutton, Merton and Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Groups), and Daniel Elkeles, Chief Executive, Epsom and St. Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust will be in attendance to discuss recent developments.

Andrew Demetriades, Joint Acute Sustainability Programme Director (for Sutton, Merton and Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Groups), and Daniel Elkeles, Chief Executive, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust (ESHUT) were in attendance to discuss recent developments in the exploration of addressing local health challenges.

Mr. Demetriades informed the Panel that Sutton, Merton and Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) continued to work together on the ambition to improve health care in a way that would be sustainable for years to come under the renamed programme title of Improving Healthcare Together 2020-30 (formerly known as the Acute Sustainability Programme).  The Panel was reminded that ESHUT’s catchment area covered the three CCGs areas in whole or part. The CCGs were responsible for overseeing health care in their local areas, including hospital services, for a combined population of around 700,000 people across the three CCGs.

Mr. Demetriades spoke to the three key challenges the programme was seeking to address:

·                     Improving the clinical quality of services: clinical standards had been set out for six key acute services to facilitate the delivery of high quality care 24/7. ESHUT had undertaken a detailed self-assessment of the workforce challenge facing it in meeting the standards and was the only Trust that had openly stated that it could not meet those standards in two key areas of specialism in relation to the consultant work force for emergency departments and acute medicine;

·                     Modernising buildings and care settings: Many of the Trust’s buildings had been built before the NHS had been founded, were rapidly ageing and were not designed for modern health care;

·                     Achieving financial sustainability: The Trust had an underlying financial deficit and the position would worsen unless changes were made.

Mr. Demetriades stated that, as Commissioners, the CCGs were very clear that clinicians had a central role in considering potential solutions to addressing these challenges.  To that end, a Clinical Advisory Group had been convened earlier in 2018 to develop a clear vision about how services for the future might be shaped.  The Group comprised representatives from the primary care providers, (the clinical chairs of the CCGs), and Trust clinical and medical directors.  Mr. Demetriades stated that from the CCGs perspective they wished to drive not only improvements in hospital care but also preventative care and how these services might be intergrated.  He also stated that the CCGs were clear on the need to retain all of the hospitals serving their local area, acknowledging the challenges that needed to be faced.  In this context, the Advisory Group had been tasked with developing a clinical model for the combined geographies of the three CCGs based on clinical standards and evidence based best practice.

Turning to the clinical model for the future, there was a desire to retain access to the majority of district services, particularly bedded services for the frail elderly.  However, it was recognised that given workforce challenges there was a potential need to bring together major acute services (emergency and acute medicine, critical care  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

To receive the Annual report of the Health Liaison Panel for 2017/18.

A copy of the report would be circulated to members of the Panel for feedback.