Decision details

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust - Accident and Emergency: Winter Preparations

Decision Maker: Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

Update Report on A&E preparations.

Decisions:

The Chairman introduced a report which provided the Committee with an update on A&E preparations for the coming winter and presented the lessons learned from last year in relation to Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital.

 

Deborah Sanders, the Director of Nursing at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, advised the Committee that the Trust was working closely with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and their partners for winter planning.  The Committee noted that in doing so, the Trust had looked at surge and bed modelling.  The Committee noted that the Trust had a number of different schemes in place for winter which included extending the hours of the urgent care provision, extra bed capacity at the Royal Free, as well as increasing hours for PACE and TREAT. 

 

Fiona Jackson, the Director of Chase Farm Hospital, advised the Committee that they were providing training for care homes and were developing links with care homes for TREAT.  Responding to a question from the Chairman, Ms. Jackson advised the Committee that care homes with the highest hospital admissions were able to access training. 

 

At the invitation of the Chairman, Dr. Debbie Frost, the Chairman of the Barnet Clinical Commissioning Group, came to the table.  Dr. Frost advised the Committee that the CCG was focussing on how agencies and partners could work together to avoid hospital admission where appropriate.

 

A Member questioned the role of carers in the community when it came to trying to reduce hospital admissions. Ms. Jackson advised that there was work to be done on working with carers when trying to reduce hospital admissions during the winter.

 

Responding to a question from a Member, Mr. Kim Flemming, the Director of Planning at The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, advised the Committee that certain diseases were more prevalent during winter and that the demographic of an area also had an impact on Accident and Emergency.  Mr. Flemming advised the Committee of the importance of keeping people healthy at home wherever possible.   

 

A Member commented that Dr. Frost’s practice had been doing a piece of work on encouraging pneumonia vaccinations and questioned if this was Borough-wide.  Dr. Frost advised that it was.

 

The Chairman requested that the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust provide an update report on ambulances to the Committee at their meeting in March 2015.

 

RESOLVED that:-

 

1)    The Committee note the report

2)    The Committee request to be provided with an update report from the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust provide an update report on the topic of Ambulances at their meeting in March 2015.

Publication date: 03/12/2014

Date of decision: 20/10/2014

Decided at meeting: 20/10/2014 - Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Accompanying Documents: