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 personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda. 

Councillor Fraser declared a personal non-prejudicial interest in agenda item 4 (Financial situation of North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust) as a member of the retired section of Unison.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 8 March 2007.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting on the Health Scrutiny Committee held on 8 March 2007 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record, with an amendment to the attendance details to record Councillor Kind’s apologies.

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, 30 March at 5:00 pm.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report introduces representatives of the North Yorkshire and York PCT, who will provide an update on matters considered at the last meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee, namely financial issues relating to the PCT’s recovery plan and information on dental and podiatry services in York.

Members considered a report which introduced representatives of North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (NYYPCT), who had attended to provide an update on issues discussed at the last meeting.

The following representatives from NYYPCT attended the meeting:

·  Janet Soo-Chung, Chief Executive;

·  Nick Steele, Director of Finance;

·  Gary Hardman, Director of Nursing and Patient Care;

·  John Brown, Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications;

·  Kay Goodwin, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Localities (Selby & York);

·  Denise Smith, Head of Primary Care Delivery (Selby & York).

Jim Easton, Chief Executive of York Hospitals NHS Trust, and Keith Martin, Assistant Director (Adult Social Services) at City of York Council also attended the meeting.

Jim Easton reported that the Hospitals Trust was continuing to consult with staff on plans to downsize the hospital, which would be implemented at the end of April.  He reassured Members that disruption to patients would be minimised and that patients with life threatening conditions would always be treated at York.  He reported that the PCT was developing an action plan to provide alternative care pathways, thereby reducing the number of cases treated by the hospital, and suggested that Members may wish to consider this plan and monitor its implementation.  Members discussed the conflict between policies promoting patient choice of hospitals and the downsizing of York Hospital and diversion of work elsewhere.  They also noted that there may be some cases where patients wished to wait, to allow adequate time for their decision making.  Jim Easton concluded by reporting that the Hospitals Trust had recently gained foundation status and paid tribute to the work of staff in achieving this.

Kay Goodwin and Denise Smith provided an update on dental services in York and reported that none of the practices in York had used up their allocated units for dental activity before the end of the financial year and therefore had to cease treatment.  Members noted that the PCT’s Press and Communications Manager had confirmed at the previous meeting that 2 practices had been forced to cease NHS treatment on these grounds and requested that this issue be investigated further and additional information provided at a briefing after the end of June.  Members expressed the view that the allocation of units needed to be refined and also raised concerns that information was no longer available for monitoring on the percentage of the population receiving dental treatment, as registrations no longer existed under the new contract.  Members and the PCT agreed on the need to feed these concerns back for consideration at a national level.  Members proposed to continue reviewing the situation regarding dental services in York.

Janet Soo-Chung and Gary Hardman updated Members on podiatry services, in the light of their concerns about waiting times.  They reported that they were developing a new care pathway for the muscular-skeletal service with community based podiatrists and physiotherapists treating patients, rather than them attending out-patient appointments at hospital orthopaedic departments.  They highlighted that this would allow treatment to be delivered more quickly and closer to patients’  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.