Presentation will be made on the night.

At the request of Members, Tom Abell the Chief Transformation Officer, had been invited back to update Members on issues that had raised and recorded from the 3 July 2017, Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Tom Abell briefed Members on the Joint Executive Group and the Site Leadership Team which were now at full complement who were charged with the day to day running of Basildon Hospital through the balanced scorecard which monitored the performance of the hospital. It was clear that senior staff were now walking the wards speaking with staff and patients, to which was paramount with all directors dedicated to do this. This would help address some issues. Tom Abell briefed Members on the nine quality priorities which included:

1.         Reducing mortality and improving end of life care

2.         Safer Maternity care

3.         Sign up to safety

4.         Reducing available patient deterioration

5.         Reducing health care associated infections

6.         Reducing medication harms

7.         Improving patient experience and satisfaction

8.         Improving nutrition and hydration

9.         Mental health crisis response pathways

Tom Abell further briefed Members on the number of complaints received by category and division and stated that more could be learnt from complaints that could provide a good insight into how patient experience care at the hospital. Further promotion of staff on how to raise a complaint had commenced to try and tackle concerns or complaints. That the reflection of practices, training, supervision, and policy changes and poor communication were ongoing challenges that need to be made more consistent.

Tom Abell stated that November had been a challenging month on performance for Basildon Hospital with waiting times outside the standard 4 hour waiting time.

Tom Abell stated that a huge focus on improving cancer patient pathways and have a commitment to meet the national target by November 2017. Graphs were shown to Members that related to how Basildon Hospital measured the number of patients who had waited beyond the key milestone points, 62+ and 104+ days, on a cancer pathway. Tom Abell stated that processes were being streamlined but all patients were seen within two weeks of their referral. That transformation, communication and engagement were key areas that were hinged on having well supported staff.

Councillor Snell thanked Tom Abell for the report.

Councillor Collins questioned the fluctuation of complaints in the report. Tom Abell stated that these were seasonal with the dip in July down to the holiday season and that negative press articles seemed to result in more negative complaints.

Councillor Collins questioned whether the activity of services used by people from outside of Thurrock had increased. Tom Abell stated that this was kept under review but no significant changes at this time had been identified.

Councillor V Holloway stated that the presentation had not covered what residents want to hear and it should have been more dedicated to what investments Basildon Hospital were making, how this would affect them, staff numbers, how staff were being trained and what was being done to ensure an increase of staff on wards. Councillor V Holloway stated that people want to talk when they were given the opportunity to speak. Tom Abell apologised that the presentation was not up to Members expectations but stated that health care could go wrong and unfortunately people would have poor experiences which was unfortunate but it did happen and that residents had the right to be listened to when given the opportunity to speak. Work will be undertaken on how best to identify problems or concerns of care and how to report these. Tom Abell confirmed that more focus training would be undertaken; addressing the welfare of staff and counselling sessions were now being offered. Tom Abell confirmed that agency staff expenditure had halved. Councillor V Holloway thanked Tom Abell and appreciated that Basildon Hospital was working under some difficult times.

Councillor Collins questioned whether the complaints received on communications was not due to a lack of funding. Tom Abell stated that communication to notifying patients of their appointments or patients not being told of appointments had been the main issue and that changes in the processes where being made that instead of letters being sent, patients were being contacted by telephone.

Councillor Collins questioned whether the problems with organisation were not due to a lack of funding. Tom Abell stated that Basildon Hospital was not living within resources and that the gap in funding had been addressed and that without additional funding over the next five years the gap would not be closed.

Councillor Snell stated that there were concerns around the understanding of the complaints and would have expected a downward turn not for the number of complaints to remain the same. That Basildon Hospital never seemed to learn from previous mistakes and asked why similar issues kept happening. Councillor Snell asked what re-assurances could be given in the next six months for improvements to be made on the number of complaints. Tom Abell stated that the issue had been the shortage of specialist staff and not having the right specialists available at the right time. Future plans included consolidating services into one hospital, extending hours to seven days a week, changing and increasing the specialist consultant cover.

Neil Woodbridge stated that the clinical outcomes for patients with learning disabilities were very poor when attending accident and emergency and could a medium strategy be put in place to sort this out. Tom Abell stated that early identification was vital to ensure that reasonable measures were put in place and that patient passports would be recognised in the hospital so that the correct procedure could be followed. Tom Abell asked for Member or Officer comments on how this could be undertaken better.

Councillor Snell thanked Tom Abell for the report and stated that clearly there were problems but good that measures were in place to fix these. Councillor Snell suggested that a report on Basildon Hospital be presented at the first committee of the next municipal calendar.

RESOLVED

That the report on Basildon Hospital will be added to the work programme for 2018/19.