To receive an update on the performance of the Wye Valley NHS Trust following the CQC report and imposition of special measures.

The Committee received an update report on progress made at the Wye Valley NHS Trust.  In his presentation, the Chief Executive of the Trust highlighted the following points:

·         That there were issues concerning the Urgent Care Pathway, and it was clear that there was insufficient resilience within the Hospital, and a need to reduce the demand on its services.  In order to reduce  the demand on A&E, community services would need to be improved and physical capacity would need to be expanded in the Hospital itself. 

In reply to a question from the Chairman, he said that the plans for the next financial year were manageable within the envelope that had been negotiated with the Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (HCCG).  Limitations to the estate would mean that issues would only be resolved to a certain extent.  In the medium term, lower bed occupancy was needed over the next two to five years.  A view would have to be taken as to what could be done to manage seven day working.  It was likely that a quality premium would need to be paid.

·         That compliments outweighed complaints about the hospital by 10 to 1. Training rates were not acceptable for nursing staff at the moment, but the hospital was carrying vacancies for 87 qualified nurses at the moment and it was not possible to sufficiently staff each shift.  New approaches to recruitment and retention would have to be taken and a number of highly qualified Filipino nurses were being recruited.  Part of the recruitment and retention strategy was also to recruit local staff who were not currently on the register.

·         That an approach had been made for military medical staff to be involved in the work of the Hospital, but that the outcome had not been as fruitful as had initially been hoped.

·         That there were marginal savings to be made by sharing back office functions between different organisations in other Counties.  It was becoming increasingly difficult to deliver the increasing standards that were expected within an envelope in the NHS that was receiving reduced funding.  A less complex and risk averse system might allow for financial savings.

The Chief Executive of the Trust welcomed the Chairman’s suggestion that the Committee could provide help by lobbying on behalf of the hospital, and said that this was not the most appropriate time to provide this support.  Partial mitigation of the financial and quality challenges was in hand, and all avenues should be exhausted before such an approach should be taken.  The Cabinet Member (Health and Wellbeing) concurred and pointed out that the Council already lobbied on a range of issues, and at this stage the Government rebuttal to such an approach would be to question whether all avenues had been exhausted on a local level.  It was important to quantify how much could be achieved through the integration of pooled budgets and how large the financial gap was after doing all that was possible locally.

Resolved: That the report be noted