Agenda item

The Panel to consider the following Notice of Motion submitted to the Council meeting on Thursday, 8th December, 2016:

"Aware of the dangers facing future funding of the National Health Service, this Council calls on the Frimley Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) to consult members as a matter of urgency about the gaps identified in the National Health Service locally, the priorities for the next five years, the initiatives in the next 18 months, the difficulties in recruiting staff, and the financing of plans going forward."

Sir Andrew Morris, Chief Executive of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust and Chair of the Frimley System Leadership Reference Group, and Dr Andrew Whitfield, Chair and Clinical Lead of NHS North East Hampshire and Farnham Clinical Commissioning Group, will be attending the Panel meeting to provide Members with further information on the Sustainability and Transformation Plan.

The Panel welcomed Sir Andrew Morris OBE, Chief Executive of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust and Chair of the Frimley System Leadership Reference Group, and Dr. Andrew Whitfield, Chair and Clinical Lead of NHS North East Hampshire and Farnham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), who had been invited to attend to provide Members with further information on the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP).  The invitation had been made in response to the following Notice of Motion submitted to the Council meeting on 8th December, 2016:

"Aware of the dangers facing future funding of the National Health Service, this Council calls on the Frimley Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) to consult members as a matter of urgency about the gaps identified in the National Health Service locally, the priorities for the next five years, the initiatives in the next 18 months, the difficulties in recruiting staff, and the financing of plans going forward."

Sir Andrew Morris advised the Panel that the NHS had overspent by £2bn in 2015/16 and, in order to address the funding crisis, the country had been split into 44 footprints to reform health services.  The Frimley health and care planning footprint covered five CCG areas: Slough; NHS Windsor, Ascot & Maidenhead; Bracknell & Ascot; Surrey Heath; and, North-East Hampshire and Farnham.  Each of the 44 areas was required to produce a STP to deliver a five year forward view of better health, better patient care and improved efficiency.  There were a number of partners involved in delivering the STP including NHS commissioners, acute care providers, mental health and community providers, GP Federations, GP out of hours providers, ambulance trusts and local authorities.

The Frimley five year forward view identified three gaps facing the NHS which were health and wellbeing, care and quality and finance and efficiency.  The STP provided a local system response on how the gaps would be addressed.  There were five priorities identified in the Frimley STP:

Priority 1 - Making a substantial step change to improve wellbeing, increase prevention, self-care and early detection

Priority 2 - Action to improve long-term condition outcomes including greater self-management and proactive management across all providers for people with single long term conditions

Priority 3 - Frailty Management: Proactive management of frail patients with multiple complex physical and mental health long-term conditions, reducing crises and prolonged hospital stays

Priority 4 - Redesigning urgent and emergency care, including integrated working and primary care models providing timely care in the most appropriate place

Priority 5 - Reducing variation and health inequalities across pathways to improve outcomes and maximise value for citizens across the population, supported by evidence

Work was well underway to identify ways of delivering solutions to meet the priorities and there were a number of local examples of where improvements were already being delivered.  One example was working with Hampshire County Council to enable Frimley to provide care packages for patients to speed up the process of getting patients back into their own homes.  The good practice examples making the biggest difference to the gaps identified would be rolled out to other areas and delivered at scale.  The changes to be introduced should result in fewer patients visiting accident and emergency, fewer patients being admitted to hospital and patients being discharged from hospital earlier.  There would also be a more co-ordinated approach in services sharing information and delivering more integrated care.

Dr. Andrew Whitfield reported on the changes to the General Practice (GP) service.  From April 2017, GP services would be provided from 8am-8pm in some designated transformational areas and then would be rolled out across the Frimley STP area from September 2017.  Some services traditionally provided by GP’s would be spread across other practitioners including doctors, nurses, paramedics, pharmacists and physiotherapists to ensure patients were able to see the right practitioner from their first visit.  A trial would also be carried out with GP’s working in accident and emergency to help discharge patients.

The Panel welcomed the changes proposed within the STP.  There was a lengthy discussion on the improvements put forward in the STP and the Panel made a number of comments.  The provision of alternative personnel to provide GP services was welcomed which it was hoped would free-up more GP appointments.  The Panel also supported the potential for expansion of GP practices, and where feasible, the merger of practices to create larger modern facilities with the ability to provide the necessary services required by patients. 

The Panel thanked Sir Andrew Morris and Dr. Andrew Whitfield for attending the meeting and providing a comprehensive picture of the STP and the improvement work being undertaken.  Sir Andrew Morris confirmed that there would continue to be an ongoing dialogue with partners including the Council as the STP was developed further.

The Panel recognised that the discussion and follow-up actions addressed the issues raised in the Motion.  It was AGREED that the development of the STP would be monitored by the Panel and included in the Work Programme.