Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor J.I. Hutchinson.

Minutes of the meeting of the Health & Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee held on 2 March 2021, as circulated, to be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

RESOLVED that the minutes of Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 2 March 2021 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To note the latest Forward Plan of key decisions.  Any further changes to the Forward Plan will be reported at the meeting.

A latest Forward Plan of key decisions (attached to the signed minutes as Appendix A) were noted.

RESOLVED that the information be noted.

The minutes of the Health & Wellbeing Board held on 11 February 2021 is attached for the scrutiny of any issues considered or agreed there.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Health & Wellbeing Board held on 11 February 2021 were noted.

To receive a presentation from the CNTW.

Members received a presentation from Pamela Travers, Kath Elliott and Chloe Mann of the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust.  The presentation outlined the Trust’s experiences, what it had delivered and future thoughts about what needed to be done plus the five year plan.

Members were informed of the following:-

•       Psychiatric Liaison

•       Face to face contact had continued throughout the pandemic.

•       The Trust was required to provide a Mental Health Emergency Department in response to the pandemic.

•       Children and young persons pathway had been introduced.

•       An extended service for older adult’s liaison psychiatry was being piloted at NSECH.

•       Older Persons Pathway

•       Accelerated plan for 24/7 Crisis Care for older adults

•       Urgent assessment available  working with care providers to avoid breakdown of home environment

•       Direct referrals were accepted.

•       Working Age Pathway

•       Essential need for mental health crisis care was recognised and worked closely with ICS to respond.

•       Close working with wider community and directly with Together in a Crisis to offer bespoke service.

•       Younger Persons Pathway

•       Young people up to age of 25 at particular risk during the pandemic.

•       An enhanced psychiatric liaison service had been developed.

•       Specialist follow up for acute admissions and follow up appointments with CYP Crisis Team.  This reduced deterioration and provided early intervention on first presentation.

•       Addictions Services

•       Full service remained available and approach adapted to meet needs of most vulnerable.

•       Included provision of mobile phones to vulnerable, use of technology for group therapy and food parcel provision.

•       Community Treatment Teams

•       Initially only essential face to face contact offered but regular service resumed.

•       Digital Technology developed for individual and group work.

•       Care plans developed to allow for choice regarding contact.

•       COVID secure workplaces developed for staff and patients.

•       Minimal increase in DNAs and initial decrease in referrals

•       Referrals decreased initially but now returned to pre COVID levels plus slight increase.

•       What went well?

•       Close collaborative work with patients to develop care plan they felt safe and comfortable with.

•       Collaborative work with nursing homes.

•       Increased confidence in use of digital technology.

•       New approaches to team and partnership working and response to ever changing patient need.

•       Flexible and adaptability of workforce and ongoing staff resilience.

•       What’s next?

•       The Trust would continue to work in a COVID safe environment, enhance and maintain the use of digital technology.

•       The crisis service offer to 16-25s would continue to be developed in line with the long-term plan.

•       Service model within Addictions to be reviewed.

•       Transformation of Community Mental Health as part of the NHS long term plan.

        The following comments were made:-      

•       Members welcomed the report and thanked the Trust for its hard work and commitment and flexibility to adapt during the pandemic.

•       The pandemic had created a lot of pressure on families and communities and there had been incidents of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 165.

To receive a presentation from Jeremy Rushmer, Executive Medical Director, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Members received a presentation from Jeremy Rushmer, Executive Medical Director, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Members were informed of the following:-

•       The Trust was in the middle of a five year strategy ending in 2023.

•       The vision remained to be the leader in proving high quality, safe and caring health and care services and to lead collectively with partners, to deliver system wide healthcare.

•       Quality Account 2020/21 – safety and quality priorities and figures showing progress in each in Quarter 4.

•       Flow - discharge

•       Management of acutely unwell patients – improving timeliness of observations of medially unwell patients and continued work via the Deteriorating Patient Board.

•       Supply and administration of medicines – best use of Patient Group Directions (PGDs) and training of non-medical prescribers especially in community settings.

•       Children and young people’s emotional well-being and mental health – Responsiveness to children and young people emotional wellbeing and mental health issues, improving CAMHS pathways and reducing waiting times.

•       End of life car and bereavement – Consolidation of bereavement and Medical Examiner work.  Systematic clinical team review of cases and end of life strategy work.

•       Patient experience – supporting those with dementia whilst in patient and improving assessment and management of pain for those with learning difficulties in the emergency department.

•       Staff experience – strong link between staff and patient experience. 

•       The following Safety and Quality Priorities had been identified for 2021/22:

•       Access standards – regaining the standards for patient access.

•       Outpatients – embedding the changes in delivering outpatient appointments.

•       Deteriorating patient – to continue to improve the management of acutely unwell patients in both hospital and community settings.

•       Delirium – improvement of the detection of patients with delirium and the training of staff to improve early detection.

•       Patient Group Directors – continue to improve how we supply and administer PGDs to patients.

•       Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) – build on the work undertaken this year to improve the timely access to the full range of CAMHS services.

•       Patient experience – intention is to get the patient experience back to pre-COVID levels.

•       Staff experience – again to build on the successful staff experience programme with the introduction of real time staff experience reporting.

The following comments were made in response to queries by Members:-     

•       Long COVID could mean different things to different people.  Patients with severe respiratory illnesses following long stays in intensive care to those experiencing post viral symptoms.  There was support in place for Long COVID patients and the Trust was working with the CCG about extending this offer.  More science and treatments were required to work out the best way to treat these patients.  The Trust currently ran a Long COVID clinic.  All patients with severe respiratory symptoms were followed up and the Trust was also looking at how it could support patients with other persistent post viral symptoms as part of next year’s strategy. 

•       There  ...  view the full minutes text for item 166.

To consider the work programme/monitoring report for the Health and Wellbeing OSC for 2019/20.

Members considered the work programme/monitoring report for the Health and Wellbeing OSC for 2019/20. 

RESOLVED that the work programme be noted.

The date of the next remote meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 4 May 2021.

The next meeting would take place on Tuesday 1 June 2021 at 10:00 a.m.