Agenda item

The Chairman of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Alison Cornelius welcomed all attendees to the meeting.

She noted a correction to the previous minutes:

-        Page 12 should be ‘reported to the Committee in 2018’,

Matters arising from the previous meeting:

The Chairman read out a precis of an update she had received from Barnet CCG regarding the utilisation of Finchley Memorial Hospital:

“Following the opening of Adam’s Ward in late December 2017, the CCG has finalised agreement to develop a new Breast Screening Unit at Finchley Memorial Hospital which should be operational by the end of July 2018, followed not long afterwards by a new CT Scanner research project providing enhanced diagnostic services to Barnet residents at risk of developing lung cancer.

The capital project to convert a series of consulting and examination rooms into these two new suites is close to being finalised.  The timings of the CT Scanner services becoming operational will be a bit later than the Breast Screening services.  This is because the capital works and commissioning of new equipment is more extensive and also because University College London Hospitals (UCLH) need to coordinate timings with the full research programme.  However, the aim is for this service to be operational later this year. 

The CCG is currently working with local GPs to develop Primary Care Services on the Finchley site and is inviting expressions of interest from Barnet Practices.  The CCG requires applying Practices to offer a full range of GP Primary Care Services including new patient registrations.  This is an exciting opportunity to also potentially align Primary Care with Mental Health and Social Care Services.  The CCG will be meeting with new Practices at the end of May and have invited submissions by the end of June.  These will be reviewed and a decision to proceed will be made in July 2018.

If an acceptable proposal is identified, the CCG will work with the GPs to manage the next steps.  Although the CCG cannot be precise about timescales from this point onwards, as they are dependant on the detail of the successful proposal, the aim is to have new services operational from the Finchley site by the end of 2018.  At the December 2017 HOSC meeting, the CCG Chief Operating Officer explained that whilst there was confidence that a solution would be found, if it was not possible to bring forward an acceptable proposal, the CCG would move forward with plans for other clinical services at Finchley Memorial Hospital”

The Committee requested an update report on the utilisation of Finchley Memorial Hospital be received at their July 2018 meeting.

The Chairman notified the Committee that the Governance Officer is still chasing the Care Closer to Home Integrated Networks (CHINS) information requested by the Committee at their February 2018 meeting.

The Committee requested the STP update be added to the Committee Forward Work programme.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the previous meeting of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 5February be agreed as a correct record.