Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

The Chair invited Members to declare at this point any interests they might have in the business on the agenda. The following interests were declared:

·           Cllr Fraser – a personal, non prejudicial interest in the business generally, insofar as it related to staff issues, as a retired member of UNISON.

·           Cllr Moore – a personal, non prejudicial interest in the business generally, in view of his wife’s employment in a GP’s practice.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 9 October 2006.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the last meeting of Health Scrutiny Committee, held on 9 October 2006, be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

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 Panel’s remit can do so. Anyone who wishes to register or requires further information is requested to contact the Democracy Officer on the contact details listed at the foot of this agenda. The deadline for registering is Friday 1 December, at 10:00 am.

It was reported that John Yates registered to speak under the Public Participation Scheme. He withdrew his registration before the meeting began.

This report asks Members to consider how they wish to progress the work they have already done to examine the financial recovery plan of the North Yorkshire and York PCT and to consider the Committee’s future work plan for the remained of the municipal year.

Note: Annex A to this report has been circulated to Committee Members only but is available to view on the Council’s website, at http://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.asp?CId=444&MId=2015&Ver=4

Hard copies may be obtained from Democratic Services, if required (contact details at the foot of this agenda).

Members considered a report about how they wished to progress with the work they had already done  to examine the financial recovery plan of the North Yorkshire and York PCT. They also considered the Committee’s future work plan for the remainder of the municipal year.

It had been hoped that the non-Executive director of the PCT who has been allocated to this Committee, Michael Sweet, would have been able to attend this evening. Unfortunately he had sent his apologies.

The Chair reported that Councillor Fraser and himself had met with the new Chief Executive and Chair of the PCT. Most of the executive directors of the PCT had now been appointed barring the Director of Public Health. This was going to be a joint appointment with North Yorkshire County Council and the Deputy Director a joint appointment with the City of York. Councillor Moore expressed concern about who was responsible for Public Health if an appointment had not been made and it was suggested that the Chief Executive would take responsibility until the post had been filled.

It was noted that the new Trust’s offices were located as follows:

·           Administrative Headquarters – The Hamlet, Harrogate

·           Operational Headquarters – Sovereign House, York

Concerns were raised about the financial recovery of the PCT and Jim Easton said he hoped to have a concrete view of the PCT’s aims by the end of January or early February 2007.

Councillor Fraser made several comments concerning the report:

·           The Committee still had not seen the final working document  regarding the clinical thresholds guidance and how it addressed the relationship between RACAS and Practice Based Commissioning (PBC) mentioned in Paragraph 6 of the report. Jim Easton said he thought the working draft of this document had now been implemented.

·           Interest was expressed in paragraph 13 of the report and it was felt that the Scrutiny Committee could benefit from being in contact with the Local Strategic Partnership. He said that addressing health and inequalities issues within the local communities was very important.

When considering holding an open forum meeting at the end of January the following points were raised:

·           It would be better to hold off holding this Forum and discuss some other Scrutiny Review topics.

·           The time could be better spent building relationships with the new Trusts and Ambulance Service.

·           There would be greater attendance at the proposed Forum if it was held on an evening or a weekend.

·           Many fears would be allayed if the PCT said where they were at and where they were aiming to go.

·           The Forum would need to be very well publicised.

·           It would help the PCT to be put in touch with the local communities and this could be done via a public forum.

·           An outline of the PCT’s plans for Public Participation would give the Committee a good idea of who they would have the most influence on.

·           Concerns were expressed about the timing of the Forum as many  PCT senior employees would just be starting in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

Any other business which the Chair considers urgent under the  Local Government Act 1972

The Chair expressed his thanks to Helen Mackman, Forum Support Officer,  for supporting the Patient and Public Involvement Forums. Her contract was expiring at the end of the year as the responsibility for administering the Forums in their final months was being moved to another body.