To receive an update from the Council’s representative on matters considered at the last meeting.

83.1           Members received an update from the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee, on matters discussed at its last meeting held on 6 March 2018.

83.2           Members were informed that the Chief Executive of the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had submitted a detailed briefing to the Committee including the reasons for the proposal to establish a subsidiary company; the number of staff affected; and the staff consultation process.  Most of the concerns that were raised by the Committee had reflected those raised by staff throughout the consultation process and the briefing paper clarified the Trust’s response.  It was also confirmed that the subsidiary company would be fully accountable to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.  Whilst acknowledging that there had been formal consultation with affected staff, some Members felt that the Committee should also have been consulted; however, as this matter related to how the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust organised its workforce, not to a service change, it fell outside the remit of the Committee.

83.3           It was noted that the Committee had received and discussed the Gloucestershire Winter Resilience Plan at its November 2017 meeting and it was important to understand whether the objectives identified in the plan had been achieved.  It was clear that, despite the challenges, a lot had been accomplished and this was attributed to significantly closer partnership working and every member of staff working together to achieve the best for patients.  Headlines from the period included: significantly improved winter emergency department performance – the national four hour standard had been met in November 2017 for the first time in over four years, December had seen a 16.84% increase in performance and there had been a 15.01% improvement in January compared with the same period in the previous year; 78% reduction in ambulance handover delays with zero over one hour; 59% increase in weekend discharges; reduced delayed transfers of care with Gloucestershire being the third best in the country for January 2018; and, the Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust rapid response service had supported 80% (1,295) more patients to remain in their own home over the winter compared to the previous year.  The data on the trauma and orthopaedics pilot at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had indicated this was having a positive effect on the patient experience and was improving job satisfaction for staff and training for junior doctors.  The Committee had agreed to extend the pilot in order to gather more data and continue validation of this process with a formal consultation on a service change in due course.

83.4           In addition to the Winter Plan performance, the Committee had noted that the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (GCCG) was working to reduce cancer wait times and would continue to closely monitor performance.  It was also clarified that the GCCG was working with the 2gether NHS Foundation Trust to improve waiting times around Early Intervention in Psychosis and would be looking to increase the age range next year.  It was noted that adult social care reassessments had been an issue for some time and the performance team had been commissioned to undertake a detailed analysis with every team.  It had been identified that restrictions within the Estates Return Information Collection (ERIC) system had resulted in each locality developing their own way of recording data which had impacted on overall performance; work was underway for a replacement for ERIC.

83.5           The Chair thanked the Council’s representative for her report and it was

RESOLVED          That the Gloucestershire Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee Update be NOTED.