Agenda and minutes

Venue: Hendon Town Hall, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BQ

Contact: Anita Vukomanovic Email: anita.vukomanovic@barnet.gov.uk, 020 8359 7034 

Note: Public Questions and Comments must be submitted by 10am on the third working day before the meeting. The deadline for this meeting is 10am on Wednesday 29 November. 

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 135 KB

Minutes:

The Chairman introduced the minutes of the last meeting and noted that the Committee had been e-mailed a copy of the Enforcement Notice relating to the land adjacent to Finchley Memorial Hospital.

 

The Chairman noted that the Committee would receive a further update from the Royal Free on parking at Barnet Hospital during the meeting.

 

RESOLVED that the minutes of the last meeting be agreed as a correct record.

 

2.

Absence of Members

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Val Duschinsky who was substituted by Councillor Shimon Ryde.

 

3.

Declaration of Members' Interests

Minutes:

Councillor Alison Moore declared a non-pecuniary interest in relation to Agenda Item 8 (Children and Young People's Oral Health in Barnet) by virtue of being the Chair of the East Central Early Years Locality Advisory Board.

4.

Report of the Monitoring Officer

Minutes:

None.

5.

Public Question Time (If Any)

Minutes:

None. 

6.

Members' Items (If Any) pdf icon PDF 244 KB

Minutes:

At the invitation of the Chairman Councillor Cohen introduced his Member’s Item.  He noted that the item suggested that future papers produced by the Council on policy matters should have a section which specifically considered Health and Wellbeing.  He explained that a housing policy paper could, for example, also consider wider Health and Wellbeing matters such as GP services and leisure.  Councillor Cohen suggested that the Committee could receive a paper on how this could work.  The Vice Chairman informed the Committee that he was sympathetic to the points that Councillor Cohen raised and noted that, as the matter had cost implications and was cross cutting, Policy and Resources Committee should be asked to consider it.

 

Following the consideration of the Member’s Item, the Committee:

 

RESOLVED to ask Policy and Resources Committee to consider the issue contained in the Member’s Item as set out above.

 

 

7.

NHS Trust Quality Accounts: 6 Month Review pdf icon PDF 263 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman introduced the report which provided a mid-year update on the progress made following the receipt of the Committee’s comments on the Quality Accounts for the following organisations:

 

·       North London Hospice

·       Central London Community Hospital

·       The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

 

The Governance Officer advised the Committee and the representatives of the organisations listed above:

 

“The National Health Service (Quality Accounts) Regulations 2010 is the relevant piece of law that outlines the requirements for the management of Quality Accounts.  It says that HOSCs are required to submit their comments on Quality Accounts for inclusion prior to the Account being published.  The deadline for this is 30 June. 

 

Ordinarily, Barnet’s HOSC has always sought to send the Committee’s comments to the organisations as early as possible.  We understand that it is a complex and timely process to produce a Quality Account and that organisations also need to make allowances for their own internal deadlines.  However, in May 2018, all Members of the Council will be up for re-election and, as such, they cannot be appointed to Committees until the first meeting of the Full Council. In Barnet’s case, this is scheduled to be on Tuesday 22 May.  We expect that Barnet HOSC will meet on Thursday 24 May to consider the Quality Accounts, which means that we can draft the comments the following day and ask to Members to review them over the Bank Holiday weekend.  We can provide the comments to the Organisations at around lunchtime on Tuesday 29 May.  This is later than we would normally submit comments for inclusion within the Accounts, although technically comments submitted up to 30 June are required to be included. 

 

Please be advised therefore that we will be unable to provide you with comments at the usual earlier date.

 

This is something that will affect all HOSCs in London and so I wanted to take the opportunity to flag this in front of senior Health colleagues from all relevant organisations six months in advance, so that you have time to prepare. 

 

I will contact each organisation outside the meeting about this information.  However, I wanted to put this on record at this meeting for the purposes of good governance.” 

 

North London Hospice:

 

The Chairman invited the following to the table:

·       Miranda Fairhurst - Assistant Director Quality

·       Fran Deane - Director of Clinical Services

 

Ms. Deane referred to the Hospice’s “Hard to Reach Groups” programme, which aims to promote equal access to services for all potential users.  Ms. Deane noted that this was a priority for improvement and that the Hospice had been receiving data within all three Boroughs that the Hospice serves. 

 

Ms. Deane noted the when the Committee had reviewed the Hospice’s Quality Account last year, they had been informed about the introduction of an “Outcome Star”, currently named the “End of Life Star”.  Ms. Deane informed the Committee that this work had been slightly delayed as the Hospice was waiting for NHS Ethics approval but it was hoped  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Children and Young People's Oral Health in Barnet pdf icon PDF 276 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman invited to the table:

 

·       Councillor Helena Hart – Chairman, Barnet Health and Wellbeing Board

·       Natalia Clifford - Consultant in Public Health

·       SelinaRodrigues - Manager, Healthwatch Barnet

 

Councillor Hart introduced the report which provided information on the oral health of children and young people in Banet and which also outlined opportunities to decrease rates of decay in children.  Councillor Hart informed the Committee that the report highlighted two key issues, which were prevention and treatment.

 

Councillor Hart informed the Committee that NHS Practices rarely recall patients in order to monitor their dental health as Practices would need to have a sufficient number of unused Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) available to do so.  She highlighted the importance of dental ill-health in being an indicator in safeguarding matters. She regretted that patients no longer register with an individual Practice but present for treatment wherever they can find a Practice willing to treat them.  This could lead to the loss of the background knowledge so necessary for good safeguarding.  Councillor Hart expressed concern that sufficient UDAs are not uniformly available across the Borough. 

 

Referring to the Report, Councillor Hart noted the “Starting Well: A Smile4Life” programme initiated by NHS England to reduce oral health inequalities and improve oral health.  NHS England (London Region) would also be working with Public Health England to identify five Boroughs to promote dental access.  Councillor Hart suggested that the Committee work with the Council’s Public Health department to assist in the Borough being chosen as one of the five pilot Boroughs.  Members of the Committee expressed their support for Barnet putting itself forward as a pilot Borough. 

 

Ms. Rodrigues welcomed the report and advised that Healthwatch Barnet would be very happy to support any such work.  She informed the Committee that mystery shopping had shown that it was very hard for patients to get an NHS dental appointment within two weeks.  She advised that this also created a barrier for parents with one year old children. 

 

Ms. Clifford informed the Committee that one of the challenges facing dental care is that level of UDAs had not been increased for many years despite the significant increase in the population. 

 

The Chairman noted that NHS England confirmed that Barnet utilised 98.5% of their UDAs and so utilisation is not an issue in Barnet.  Councillor Hart advised that one of the problems is that there is no mechanism to move unused UDAs between Practices. 

 

A Member asked if it would be possible to write to NHS England to request a change in the policy so that unused UDAs can be transferred between Practices. 

 

A Member suggested ensuring that Children’s Centres and Health Visitors are informing pregnant and new mothers of their entitlement to free NHS Dental care. 

 

Responding to a question from a Member, Ms. Clifford noted that the requirements for the pilot included a need within the Borough, buy-in, and leadership and that Barnet had all three.  She informed the Committee that it would cost £59,000 to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Finchley Memorial Hospital - Update Report pdf icon PDF 251 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman invited the following to the table:

 

·       Dr. Debbie Frost - Chair, Barnet CCG

·       Kay Matthews - Chief Operating Officer, Barnet CCG

·       Alan Gavurin - FMH Programme Manager, Barnet CCG

 

Ms. Matthews introduced her report and noted that when Barnet CCG had last attended Committee, they had outlined their progress in relation to five key strategic pieces of work to make Finchley Memorial Hospital what it should be: a centre for excellence and a key strategic asset. 

 

Ms. Matthews provided an update on the key pieces of work, which included:

 

Adams Ward:

·       Adams Ward had opened on 4 December 2017 and the first five patients would be admitted in the first week rising to the full complement of seventeen patients within the first two weeks. The Committee noted that CLCH had assisted in opening Adams Ward by putting in staff and services. 

 

Breast Screening Unit:

 

·       Significant work has been undertaken in order to develop and open the new breast screening facility.  The CCG has been working with Community Health Partnerships (CHP) and the Royal Free Hospital (RFL) which runs the North London Breast Screening Service.  The main issues had been whether CHP would provide the capital costs and if NHS England would support this move. The CCG is optimistic about opening the facility but is still awaiting final confirmation by all parties before confirming that development of the new unit is  going ahead.  The CCG and RFL are aiming to open the new Breast Screening Unit in May 2018. 

 

·       During the discussion of the above, the Chairman asked if it would be helpful for the Committee to intervene or to invite CHP to a future meeting of the Committee.  Ms. Matthews advised that she would contact the Chairman if she considered that it would be useful. 

 

Develop and open the new CT scanner facility:

 

·       Agreements had been reached on the cost of transformation work for a new CT scanner as part of a UCLH research project and that the CCG was waiting on signatures to finalise arrangements.  The Committee was advised that the CCG is optimistic about this project and hopes the facility will be opened in May 2018 as planned. 

 

 

 

 

General Practice:

 

·       Since the Committee’s last meeting, the CCG’s new Director of Care Closer to Home is developing a strategy to attract a General Practice into FMH.  The Committee noted that the project was running according to the timeline set out in the report. 

 

Movement of the CCG headquarters from North London Business Park to FMH:

 

·       The CCG have been scoping the possibility of moving the CCG’s Headquarters to vacant office space on the 2nd floor at Finchley Memorial Hospital and will report back on the progress of this piece of work when they next attend the Committee. 

 

Improving Utilisation:

 

·       Finchley Memorial Hospital has been identified by CHP to be the site of a pilot project to develop a new centre management service, which will combine new technology and building management systems to collect more accurate utilisation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.

Health Overview and Scrutiny Forward Work Programme pdf icon PDF 202 KB

Minutes:

The Chairman invited to the table:

·       Selina Rodrigues, Manager - Healthwatch Barnet.

 

Ms. Rodrigues informed the Committee that Healthwatch Barnet had been undertaking some work with their charity partners on adult social care and also a review on mealtimes at the Royal Free Hospital.  The Committee noted that Healtwatch Barnet had just finished their first year on a piece of work with Patient Participation Groups.  The Chairman requested that Healthwatch Barnet bring a report to the February 2018 meeting to cover:

 

·       Patient Participation Groups

·       Cancer Screening

·       Mealtimes at the Royal Free Hospital.

 

A Member noted that the Committee was due to receive a report on the STP in the context of key worker housing and requested it was received at the next possible meeting.  The Governance Officer in attendance undertook to arrange for the report to be received as soon as possible. 

 

RESOLVED that the Committee noted the Forward Work Programme.

 

 

11.

Any Other Items that the Chairman Decides are Urgent