Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Deputy Billy Dove.

There were no declarations of interest.

To agree the public minutes of the meeting held on 16^th August 2013.

RESOLVED – That the Minutes of the meeting held on 16 July 2013 be approved.

Report of Barts Health NHS Trust (to follow)

A report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services was received which provided a brief update from Bart’s Health Trust in respect of the promotion of the Minor Injuries Unit as an alternative A&E and the outpatients booking system.

In considering the report, it was agreed that a follow up report would be presented to the Committee on the outpatients booking system, once it had been in operation for 1 year.  It was also agreed that a more detailed plan as to how the booking system would be promoted would be provided to the Sub Committee.

Further clarity was sought regarding the difference between A&E and urgent care and what was categorised as a ‘minor injury’.  The representative of Healthwatch, David Simpson agreed to take these points back to the next Board meeting.

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services

A report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services was received which provided an overview of the public engagement and consultation processes for the reconfiguration of cancer and cardiovascular service across north and east London and west Essex.

Members agreed the document needed to clarify the City of London was not a London Borough.  It was noted that the Deputy Chairman would be attending the next meeting of the JHOSCs and he would therefore report the outcome of this meeting to the Sub Committee.

The Sub Committee also made reference to the need to make services available for City workers.

The Director agreed to provide a written response to the Committee on the results of the consultation.

Report of the City and Hackney Clinical Commissioning Group

The Sub Committee received an update from the NHS City and Hackney Clinical Commissioning Group who had been unable to be present for the meeting. 

The Sub Committee discussed the report and it was agreed that a letter would be written to the Commissioning Group which set out the concerns of the Committee.  The agreed points to be included were as follows -

·         Whilst the sub-committee agreed that the commissioning intentions identified a number of important areas, it would like to know which clinical areas or services would see disinvestment;

·         There did not appear to be any mention of rough sleepers and therefore the Sub-Committee sought clarification of the CCG’s role in commissioning services for this very vulnerable group of health care users, including services that prevented multiple admissions to A&E.  The Sub-Committee requested clarification on the consultation process for these intentions;

·         Clarification was sought regarding the City of London Healthwatch’s involvement to date in shaping the commissioning intentions, and whether it played a role in co-production.

·         With regards to improved screening for dementia, clarification was sought on how this would be achieved;

·         The Sub-Committee welcomed joint working on health visiting and requested reassurance that budgets would not be lost in 2015 when health visiting became a local authority function;

·         A question was raised regarding how the CCG proposed to work with CCGs in neighbouring boroughs to ensure effective services were delivered to all City residents, and not just those who were registered with a City and Hackney GP; and

·         The Sub-Committee were interested to know about the longer-term commissioning intentions of the CCG, as these only covered a single year and whether the CCG was working to a longer-term strategic commissioning plan.

There were no questions.

There were no items of urgent business.