Agenda item

This paper provides an update regarding the development and completion of Foss Park hospital in York, highlighting progress to date and detailing the recent CQC inspection of inpatient services on site.

Members considered a report that updated them on the development and completion of Foss Park hospital in York.

Officers from the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust had joined the meeting remotely to provide an update on the progress to date including the recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) Inspection of inpatient services and to answer any questions raised.

The Strategic Project Manager provided a Foss Park overview, as highlighted within the report, and he noted that:

·        The new purpose-designed 72 bed hospital provided two adult single sex wards and two older people’s wards, one for people with dementia and one for people with mental health conditions such as severe depression or anxiety.

·        All 72 bedrooms were single bedrooms with en-suite facilities and each bedroom corridor had rooms on one side and garden views on the other, so that no two rooms faced each other.

·        Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) had invested approximately £40m (including VAT, fees and land purchase) from internal cash resources to support this development and TWEV owned the land and the building, enabling them to manage and maintain the building to the standard required.

·        The hospital name and the names of the individual wards were chosen through a democratic focus group approach and the final decision was made for the individual wards to be named, Ebor Ward (female adult beds), Minster Ward (male adult beds), Moor Croft Ward (18 older person’s functional beds) and Wold View Ward (18 older person’s organic (dementia) beds).

·        Foss Park hospital accommodated service users from York and Selby, including Harrogate and the hospital provided 36 adult beds in total (previously there were 38 beds available). In mitigating the shortfall, 2 beds were available at Cross Lane Hospital in Scarborough.

The Director of Operations provided a CQC inspection overview. She made reference to the actions taken since the January 2021 inspection of the acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units across the whole trust, which was rated inadequate for both safe and well-led.

The Director provided assurance that effective systems were now in place to keep patients safe and that further improvements were underway.

Members noted that the improvement programme would be overseen and reviewed by an external Quality Assurance Board, which included representatives from NHS England and the CQC and the actions taken to address the CQC concerns, which were highlighted within the report and included:

·        Rapid quality improvement events to improve the risk management systems and introduce simplified processes.

·        New training programmes for staff, including master classes on the new processes and on developing a good quality risk assessment.

·        Every inpatient record had been audited across the trust.

·        Risk was now addressed for all inpatient admissions using the new safer summary safety plan.

·        All staffing had been reviewed and additional investment had been approved for frontline staff posts.

·        The re-inspection in May 2021 took place over 9 wards, including Ebor and Minster at Foss Park Hospital. On 27 August the CQC published its report following the re-inspection giving the rating ‘requires improvements’ and the CQC no longer had significant concerns relating to risk management of service users.

·        Improvements would continue to be embedded across the trust to provide a positive impact on patient care.

Members also noted the feedback from carers and the advocate regarding the Ebor Ward and in response to Members questions, it was noted that:

·        The trust had committed an extra £5.4m for extra staffing for inpatient wards and these were being advertised. North Yorkshire, including Fosspark Hospital would use their allocation to secure additional administrative support, increase nursing capacity and to support practice development. 

·        Four consultants had been recruited to address some of the challenges within the services.

·        A robust bed management system had been introduced and was assessed every day. As at 2 November 2021, there were 12 beds vacant across North Yorkshire and York. Beds were managed as a whole across North Yorkshire and since the opening of Foss Park some patients have had to be placed outside of their local area.

·        The trust continued to utilise best practice clinical processes to ensure that only patients who required inpatient treatment were admitted, those who cannot be managed through increased packages of community intervention from the mental health teams.

·        The Quality Assurance Schedule would consistently monitor the improvements, the care on the wards and ensure the right support would be offered to staff to sustain and embed the improvements in their practice on a daily basis. 

·        A new strategic framework had been implemented across the trust and a new Chief Executive was in place. The strategic framework would support the trust over the next 5 years and plans were in place to progress the actions that the CQC had identified.

·        The Oxehealth Digital Care Assistant provided sensory monitoring of patients in their rooms. It did not replace nursing care but prompted staff to any key environmental changes, which could signal a physical change in a service users’ presentation. Patients were made aware of this system and its objective.

·        Staff worked hard to keep patients safe and were experienced in meeting people’s individual challenging needs and conditions.

Officers were thanked for their comprehensive report and for attending the meeting to provide a detailed update.

Resolved: That the update be noted.

Reason: To keep the Committee updated.