Agenda and minutes

At this point in the meeting, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

At this point in the meeting, Members were asked to declare any personal, prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests that they had in the business on the agenda.

Councillor S Barnes declared his standing interest as an employee of Leeds North Clinical Commissioning Group in reference to the fact that they commissioned services from Leeds and York Partnership FoundationTrust.

No other interests were declared.

At this point in the meeting, members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Committee’s remit can do so. The deadline for registering is Friday 22 April 2016 at 5:00 pm.

Filming, Recording or Webcasting Meetings

Please note this meeting may be filmed and webcast and that includes any registered public speakers, who have given their permission.  This broadcast can be viewed at: http://www.york.gov.uk/webcasts.

Residents are welcome to photograph, film or record Councillors and Officers at all meetings open to the press and public. This includes the use of social media reporting, i.e. tweeting.  Anyone wishing to film, record or take photos at any public meeting should contact the Democracy Officer (whose contact details are at the foot of this agenda) in advance of the meeting.

The Council’s protocol on Webcasting, Filming & Recording of Meetings ensures that these practices are carried out in a manner both respectful to the conduct of the meeting and all those present.  It can be viewed at: https://www.york.gov.uk/downloads/file/6453/protocol_for_webcasting_filming_and_recording_council_meetingspdf

It was reported that there had been four registered speakers under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme. Each spoke in relation to Agenda Item 3) Bootham Park Hospital Update Report.

Amanda Griffiths questioned why the CQC had concentrated on one death at the hospital over four years when there had been nineteen suicides in other facilities. She felt that there should have been a focus on care processes within the inspection report. Members were informed that when she had telephoned CQC inspectors to inform them of safeguarding failures within Bootham Park Hospital, they informed her to make a complaint to Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. She felt that the current problems were that patients were being sent out of area where their records were out of access, care plans were politically aimed and that front line staff were stretched to capacity.

Sarah Lazenby spoke about how a friend had committed suicide due to being treated away from Bootham Park in Middlesbrough. This was because he did not know staff and it was far from his home. She added that she felt personally affected by his death.

Joanne Lazenby felt that the age of Bootham Park should not be taken as a negative given that other sites such as The Retreat and Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) were old buildings and still offered quality healthcare. She added that LGI had been extended like Bootham had and could be. The grounds offered a safe and healing environment and that a new mental health unit at Clifton was not suitable as it was not safe as it was next to a busy road.

Chris Brace from Mental Health Action York felt that the Health and Social Care Act fragmented the four organisations responsible for mental health services in the city. This meant that the system could allow for no one party to take on all the responsibility. He wanted the Committee to understand the urgency of the situation in regards to mental health care in the city. He wished for meaningful consultation to be undertaken, and for mental health services to be reinstated in York.

This report provides the Health & Adult Social Care Policy & Scrutiny Committee with information around the closure of Bootham Park Hospital. It also introduces a series of reports including those from; NHS England, the preliminary conclusions of the Independent Adviser appointed by the Committee and a report from Healthwatch York.

Members considered a report which provided them with information around the closure of Bootham Park Hospital and actions taken to restore services at the hospital following its de-registration.

Ruth Holt, Director of Nursing-Programmes, NHS England gave a Powerpoint presentation to Members. She said that the key issue to the closure were the restrictions to development at Bootham due to its Grade 1 listing, and that the premises were unsuitable as configured. She reminded Members that it was a legal requirement to register to deliver medical services at a hospital. There had been a number of delays in the scheduled building works. It was also noted that there was no action plan delivered from the Bootham Park Hospital Programme Board to which the Care Quality Commission was not a member. There was also a tight timeframe between the handover of the contract from Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT) to Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV). She stated that there was no evidence to show that any of the organisations were not maintaining patient safety.

In regards to actions following the closure, NHS England were now asking all organisations involved to complete action plans and these should be completed by 25 May. There was a Memorandum of Understanding in development for the sudden hospital closures and this would be going to one of NHS England’s most senior committees.

In response to questions from Members as to what would be the problems of continuing to use Bootham Park Hospital, it was felt that the configuration, in particular the layout of the wards and the lines of sight would be problematic. The lack of ability to have a single en-suite ward and the infrastructure problems would also contribute.

Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) told Members that Bootham was in breach of regulations in the run up to its closure but also that there were different standards that could be applied if it was a new application for a registration.

In response to Members questions he stated that the responsibility to make Bootham Park Hospital safe rested with LYPFT not the CQC. He added that the closure of the hospital was not mandated by law but they felt that they could not add a hospital to the registration of a new provider to deliver services from a building they knew was unsafe. He confirmed that if the CQC had served notice on LYPFT without the transfer of the contract to the new provider the hospital would have closed anyway. In response to a question about the composition of the first and second inspections as to whether they were the same on each one, it was noted that they were large inspection teams and some from the September/October 2014 inspectors went again in 2015, one had also been involved in the 2013 inspection.

One Member asked what proactive measures could have been taken across the health community and under what circumstances could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83.