Presentation from the Executive Director of Finance and Performance and Director of Integration.
Minutes:
The Director of Integration from the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDB) attended the meeting to provide an update on the merger.
The Director of Integration provided an overview of the objectives driving the case for the merger, in particular sustaining clinical services at Queen’s Burton Hospital, developing specialist services at the Royal Derby Hospital and making the best use of community hospitals in Lichfield, Tamworth and Derby. Since the merger there had been a focus on the following six clinical areas to drive improvement for patients:
· Cardiology – pathways had been redesigned to improve clinical outcomes, to repatriate complex cases to Burton hospitals and to deliver angioplasty services from Burton reducing the need to refer patients out of the area.
· Trauma & Orthopaedics – work was underway to enhance the offer at the Sir Thomas Peel Hospital by delivering more outpatient clinics in Tamworth.
· Stroke – in this clinical area, where acute specialist care was required, the acute phase would be delivered from the Royal Derby with patients repatriated closer to home thereafter.
· Renal – consultants from UHDB were managing dialysis patients at the Community hospital in Lichfield and work continued to deliver and extend services in Lichfield as well as delivering renal dialysis from home.
· Urology – consultants were now undertaking outpatient sessions at Queens Burton and cancer pathways were being remodelled with radiology and pathology input to deliver best practice at all sites.
· Radiology – work continued to recruit clinicians to radiology and to improve the imaging systems to improve clinician access to imagery and therefore enable patient benefits.
The Director of Integration highlighted the next six areas of focus to deliver further patient benefit:
· Ophthalmology
· Dermatology
· Gynaecology
· Vascular Surgery
· Critical Care
· Head and Neck
The Outwoods Site in Burton had secured capital funding from central government, which would deliver a facility to build a bridge between health and social care.
Questions were raised in the following areas:
· The latest financial position of UHDB
· Staff vacancies at UHDB
· Consultation process and distance of travel for treatment
The Director of Integration responded that he could not provide details on the latest financial position of the trust as a whole, however, the merger looked to deliver £23m of savings over the next five years and there was a significant cost improvement programme which was ongoing.
There were different types of staff vacancies; the biggest challenge was around the winter months when bed capacity was increased but vacancies in nursing and therapy continued, which was no different from many other trusts. There was some improvement in filling medical vacancies, whilst the biggest area of challenge was around filling nursing posts.
The Director of Integration reported that the stroke pathways consultation is very specific as opposed to the broader Staffordshire STP consultation which had commenced. However, in terms of the distance of travel this varied significantly by area of specialism and in terms of the stage of treatment and it would be important to ensure that the STPs looked at how the organisations worked together to avoid duplication.
The Committee thanked the Director of Integration who then left the meeting.