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. A list of general personal interests previously declared are attached.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda.

Councillor Fraser – personal and non-prejudicial interest as a Governor of York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and as a member of the retired section of Unison;

Councillor Wiseman – personal and non-prejudicial interest as a Governor of York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Cllr Morley declared a personal non-prejudicial interest in the meeting as a member of the York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

To approve and sign the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 2 February 2009.

Arising out of consideration of the minutes it was reported that, at a recent LINks meeting, it had been agreed to share their work plan with the Health Scrutiny Committee to align the work and avoid duplication.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 2 February 2009 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 Committee’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 27 March 2009 at 5.00pm.

It was reported that there had been one registration to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

John Yates, spoke in relation to agenda item 4 (Annual Health Check). He confirmed that the York Older People’s Assembly, Chapter 10 and other groups kept a watching brief on the NHS and other health care organisations. He stated that most worked extremely well but NHS North Yorkshire & York’s (formerly North Yorkshire & York Primary Care Trust) agenda and minutes published on their website were not easily understandable by the public. He requested the Scrutiny Committee to liaise with a partnership body such as LINks to press NHS North Yorkshire & York to clarify the way in which they communicated with the public and vice versa.

This report updates Members and asks them to note the further developments in relation to the Annual Health Check 2008/09.

Representatives of the Yorkshire Ambulance Service will be attending the meeting to present their draft declaration to the Committee.

[In view of the length of the documents, Annexes 1 to 3 of this report are viewable as part of the on-line agenda]

Consideration was given to an update report in relation to further developments on the Annual Health Check 2008/09.

The Annual Health Check was the system the Healthcare Commission used to assess and report on the performance of the NHS and other healthcare organisations.

Representatives of the Yorkshire Ambulance Trust (YAS), who were in attendance at the meeting, gave a presentation on the Trust and presented their draft declaration to the Committee, it focussed on the following points:

·        The YAS challenge

·        Priorities for sustainable improvement

·        The Annual Health Check and

·        Patient Transport Services

They referred to problems that the Yorkshire Ambulance Service had had to overcome during 2008/09, which ranged from adverse weather conditions to familiarising staff with new equipment, which had resulted in a financial deficit to the service. It was confirmed that, although the Service would still not have met its target for the whole year, it would be compliant at the year end. In relation to performance they confirmed that they were only one of 5 ambulance services within the country that would reach 75% performance for the 8 minute target for reaching patients. 

They stated that they were now also in the process of seeking new premises for an additional call centre within the York conurbation which would take on the calls for the out of hours services for Monkgate, York Hospital and the General Practitioners.

The representatives confirmed that comments on their draft declarations were required by 6 April if at all possible. The Scrutiny Officer confirmed that Members were not to meet until 7 April to consider their draft comments.

Members then questioned the following points:

·        The details of the slide on Standards for Better Health in relation to the 2007/08 and 2008/09;

·        Possible joint fire and ambulance station in the area;

·        The transfer of myocardial infarction patients (MI) direct to Leeds General Infirmary rather than York;

The representatives confirmed that although there was an impact on time it had been found that better patient care was achieved if MI patients were transferred directly to a PPCI centre (Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention) of which Leeds was the nearest.

The Chair thanked the representatives of the Ambulance Service for their attendance and informative presentation.

The Scrutiny Officer confirmed that she would circulate by email additional information and guidance to Members in relation to the Health Check. ^1.

RESOLVED:             That the report and presentation be noted.

REASON:                  To enable the Health Scrutiny Committee to carry out their duty to promote the health needs of the people they represent.

[A copy of the presentation made to Members is attached to these minutes].

This report is to inform Members about the content of the Public Health Bill 2009 which was introduced into Parliament on 15 January 2009. Members are asked to note the report.

Members considered a report, which informed them of the contents of the Public Health Bill 2009. This Bill proposed measures to improve the quality of NHS care, the performance of NHS services and improve public health.

It was reported that the Bill had been introduced into Parliament on 15 January 2009 and that it concentrated on the following key areas:

·        Placed a duty on providers and commissioners of NHS services to have regard to a new NHS Constitution, which would set out the responsibilities of patients and staff

·        Introduced direct payments for health services with the intention of giving patients greater control over the health care services they received

·        Introduced quality accounts, which would provide information on quality for patients, clinicians and managers, with the aim of improving local accountability for services

·        Made provisions to protect children and young people from the harm caused by smoking. These provisions related particularly to advertising and sales from vending machines

·        Extended the remit of the Local Government Ombudsman to consider complaints from people who had arranged their own adult social care

·        Introduced a scheme by which prizes for innovation in health service provision may be awarded.

Members confirmed that they were pleased to see that provisions were to be made to protect children from the harm caused by smoking.

RESOLVED:             That the report be noted.

REASON:                  To keep Members fully informed in relation to current legislation.

This report informs Members about the ‘Healthy Ambitions’ and ‘Delivering Healthy Ambitions’ documents produced by the NHS Yorkshire and the Humber. Members are asked to note the report and consider inviting the Strategic Health Authority to give a presentation on the proposals.

Consideration was given to a report, which advised the Committee about the ‘Healthy Ambitions’, and ‘Delivering Healthy Ambitions’ documents produce by NHS Yorkshire and the Humber.

It was reported that in Spring 2008 NHS Yorkshire & the Humber had published their vision document for improving health and healthcare in Yorkshire and the Humber entitled ‘Healthy Ambitions’. Subsequently recommendations for improvement had been made in the following areas:

·        Maternity and newborn care

·        Children’s healthcare

·        Staying healthy

·        Acute episode

·        Planned care

·        Long term conditions

·        Mental health

·        End of life care

In view of the large amount of information contained within the documentation Members were asked to consider inviting a representative of the Strategic Health Authority (SHA) to address them, either in general terms or on one or more of the key areas.

The representative from NHS North Yorkshire and York confirmed that their Board would very shortly also be considering these documents. He stated that they would then be in a position to report on the local picture and on progress within each area. He indicated that it may be more appropriate for the SHA to report on the high level strategies and NHS North Yorkshire & York at the local level.

RESOLVED:             That, following consideration of this report by NHS North Yorkshire and York, representatives of the Strategic Health Authority  and NHS North Yorkshire & York be invited to an informal seminar for all Members to address them on both the strategies and the local situation. ^1.

REASON:                  To keep Members informed of regional health strategies.

Consideration was given to the Health Scrutiny Committee work plan for 2008/09.

Arising out of this, the Chair updated that he had received confirmation from Rachel Johns that statistics were collected on alcohol related incidents and hospital admissions.  He felt that this would be useful information to feed into the Alcohol Reduction Strategy (proposed scrutiny topic) and that work was progressing on a joint report, which would hopefully be available for the May meeting of the Committee.

The representative from NHS North Yorkshire and York confirmed that they had undertaken a significant amount of work with GP’s and the Hospital on the referral pathways in relation to muscular skeletal procedures to try and avoid hospital admissions. He also confirmed that referral guidance was available for all GP’s and that this would shortly be added to the hospital’s website to make sure patients were aware why they had not received treatment and of the further options available to them.