To receive a report on the 2gether NHS Foundation Trust’s Annual Plan for 2013/14.

The Committee received a presentation from Mr Shaun Clee, Chief Executive of the 2gether NHS Foundation Trust.  In his presentation, Mr Clee highlighted the following areas:

·         That the key national quality priority was that health outcomes mattered to patients and the public. Measuring and publishing information on health outcomes was important for encouraging improvements in quality.

·         That within the primary quality domain there were three areas that would help people be prevented from dying early, and these included cardiovascular, obesity and suicide.  For every 1% rise in the unemployment rate, there was a 0.97% rise in suicides.  There were early indications that despite this, the suicide rates had been reduced in Herefordshire.

·         That 95% of patients discharged from in patient units received a follow up within 48 hours, which was better than the national targets.

·         That as part of the quality of life priorities was that the Trust would receive  feedback as to whether the service had improved their quality of life through the use of standardised outcome tools.  The target was that 90% of people in contact with services would describe the impact of interventions on their discharge.  This would allow the service to know whether it had made a difference.

In reply to a question from a Member, the Director for People’s Services said that the problem with preventing mental ill health was that many people did not present themselves to the service early enough.  There was a full root cause analysis undertaken of every premature death in order to understand where the service had not performed as it should have had.  Mr Clee added that it was important that people knew that the mental health services existed, and that every effort was made to de-stigmatise mental health conditions.

The Director for People’s Services said that Herefordshire had a history and a projected challenge in relation to mental health suicides.  There was an employment pattern locally that leant itself to a higher than average suicide rate, and there were a high number of military and ex-military personnel in the County. Mr Clee said that both Shropshire and Staffordshire were commissioning services in the area of veteran mental health, and that the impact of failure in this area was understated.

He went on to say that the general Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme was a nationally prescribed programme in relation to an evidence based model. The service was designed for life transitional psychological issues, and not for critical needs. Investment in IAPT was not sufficient, and further efficiencies would have to be found or services would have to be realigned into IAPT services.  The waiting and recovery times for the service were better than the national average.

In reply to a further question, Mr Clee said that the Trust liaised with the police regarding those with mental health issues who were in custody, and there was a suite at the Stonebow Unit which acted as an alternative pace of safety for those in custody.  There were approximately two referrals a week to the unit

The Chairman thanked Mr Clee for his presentation.