Council and democracy

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1, Civic Offices, New Road, Grays, Essex, RM17 6SL.

Contact: Jenny Shade, Senior Democratic Services Officer  Email: Direct.Democracy@thurrock.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 279 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 4 March 2021.

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Minutes:

The minutes of the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on the 4 March 2021 were approved.

2.

Urgent Items

To receive additional items that the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency, in accordance with Section 100B (4) (b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

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Minutes:

No urgent items were raised.

3.

Declarations of Interests

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Minutes:

Neil Woodbridge declared a non-pecuniary interest in relation to Item 7 on the agenda that Thurrock Lifestyle Solutions were currently leasing Bell House temporarily off the Council.

4.

HealthWatch

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Minutes:

In the absence of Kim James no HealthWatch items were raised.

5.

COVID Update Presentation

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Minutes:

Jo Broadbent provided Members with an update on the latest Thurrock COVID-19 Data and Intelligence:

 

·       Current Picture, Rate per 100K Population and Positivity – Thurrock had currently one of the lowest rates per 100K population in comparison with their neighbouring local authorities and not just amongst those neighbouring authorities but in the country where Thurrock was rated 136 out of 149 lowest rates per 100K population. The positivity rate was low and had been very low for some time but had increased slightly in the past couple of weeks with rates around 25 per 100K and was very low when compared to rates back in January 2021.

·       Current Picture, Positive Tests by Age Band – That the majority of cases were within the under 40s, either in the cohort who had not been vaccinated or who had only received one vaccination. That around half of the cases were the Delta variant with the other half being the Alpha variant. That in Thurrock the Delta rates had not increased as sharply as it had in other areas in the country.

·       BTUH Bed Occupancy – There had been a period where there were no COVID patients in the hospital and there were now still very low numbers.

·       Geographical Distribution – The LSOA data showed no infections at all and those that had were between 1 and 9 cases in each unique postcode. Three schools had a live outbreak and one with a single case, no cases reported in care homes. This was really positive and compared favourably when compared to figures from a couple of months ago.

·       Current Picture – Vaccinations by Priority Group – That over 90% of over 70s had received two doses of the vaccination, the over 50s now up to 69% having had two doses and this was now being rolled out to over 21s. NHS Colleagues are planning a weekend of vaccinations to get a real push to get as many vaccinations given as possible. There had been a high update of vaccinations for those clinical extremely vulnerable patients with 75% of our NHS and social care staff having had two doses of the vaccine.

·       Other Cohorts – Continuing work with marginalised groups and three council traveller sites will be visited this week by the mobile vaccination team, work with services was currently being undertaken to support the homeless and asylum seekers. Some analysis of those geographical areas within the borough where the update had been lower which the mobile vaccination team will be visiting. Although the mainstream vaccinations were being undertaken through the NHS a lot of targeted work had been undertaken to get the vaccine numbers up.

·       Communications – Focus on urging people to continue to follow the current government guidance and to get their vaccination when invited to do so. Planning communications with businesses via the Business Buzz and easy reach social media posts to support vaccine outreach.

 

Jo Broadbent concluded that:

 

·       Thurrock’s overall rate of positive tests had increased slightly in recent weeks  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Adult Social Care - Provider Services Transformation pdf icon PDF 289 KB

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Minutes:

Ian Wake presented the report that set out the proposals to transform the adult social care provider services division and stressed that these were proposals and that no decisions had been made. This would be a Cabinet decision that had invited overview and scrutiny members to comment on the proposals as part of the normal consultation process. Ian Wake referred Members to the three proposals contained within the report which were (1) Restructure and transform the way that we provide care to create self-directed teams that he firmly believed would improve outcomes for residents and staff (2) Transformation of the day care services and (3) Proposal to decommission the meals on wheels service and action to provide this service through other mechanisms.

 

Councillor Ralph stated that this was the first time this report had been presented to this committee for members to review and to comment on.

 

Councillor Ralph welcomed Councillor Huelin, Cabinet Member for Adults and Communities, to the meeting to add any additional comments. Councillor Huelin stated that the report was very positive that would allow people who were receiving care to have much better control and to have a better understanding of individual needs who they could connect to in smaller groups locally. This in turn would connect them to other people and have the ability within their line of management to make changes rather than undertake a full very lengthy referral system. Councillor Huelin stated the day care provision was not disappearing it was being improved and stated the proposals would improve outcomes and health and wellbeing.

 

Councillor Ralph referred to the options of whether respite would be extending at Cromwell Road to which Ian Wake stated that by offering bespoke acceptable services and by rationalising the care on one site, money could be saved on buildings and more comprehensive services in terms of day care and respite would be available.

 

Councillor Ralph questioned the maximum distances that service users would have to travel to which Dawn Shepherd referred Councillor Ralph to Appendix 2 of the report that detailed the mileages in more detail. That an impact assessment would be undertaken on every service user to look at their distance of travel to Cromwell Road.

 

Councillor Ralph asked for reassure again that no services were closing down and the services were being relocated to a better location which would offer extended hours to which Ian Wake agreed.

 

Councillor Ralph noted that this industry was low paid, low valued and had a high turnaround of staff and questioned what could be done.

 

Councillor Holloway was upset to read the meals on wheels service was a nice to have service rather than an essential one, and continued to state that this was more than just a delivery service. Councillor Holloway was concerned that no proper consultation had been undertaken and there needed to be one.

 

Councillor Holloway questioned what “much higher” meant in paragraph 3.6.3 of the report; paragraph 5.1 referred to the consultation and questioned what consideration  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Orsett Hospital and the Integrated Medical Centres - Update Report pdf icon PDF 254 KB

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Minutes:

The Council and NHS partners had been working together to develop a new model of care that would provide integrated health and social care services, delivered from modern, high quality premises and able to attract the best staff.  Four new Integrated Medical Centres would locate the new model of integrated care in the heart of the communities they served, bringing a greater range of health, social care and third sector services under one roof, and improving and simplifying care pathways for residents and patients. That despite the impact of the pandemic, particularly on acute services provided by Basildon University Hospital, good progress had been made with planning, financing and service transformation for all four Integrated Medical Centres, and dedicated programme management continued in place. Christopher Smith provided members with a very detailed update on the progress of the Integrated Medical Centre programme and the proposed closure of Orsett Hospital.

 

Councillor Ralph thanked officers for the report and although understood that Orsett Hospital was due to close in 2025 he questioned and asked for reassurance that Orsett Hospital would not close if these target dates were extended past the 2025 date.

 

Councillor Ralph referred to the 2000 patient spaces at the Corringham Integrated Medical Centre and questioned whether this was a completely new surgery being built or was this existing doctors in that area taking over those spaces.

 

Councillor Polley also asked the same question for the Purfleet Integrated Medical Centre.

 

Rahul Chaudhari stated that in response to the Corringham Integrated Medical Centre it would be existing doctor surgeries from Stanford Le Hope that would be taking up those spaces. That consultation was being undertaken with GP partners in Corringham and that there were two interested surgeries who would be interested into moving into that new Integrated Medical Centre. Councillor Ralph stated that it was rubbish that these were not additional 2000 extra appointments and that Corringham critically needed extra spaces for doctor appointments and would not be fit for purpose in Corringham nor in Purfleet if those were the plans. That extra spaces and new doctors were needed not existing doctors moving into new premises. Ian Wake stated that this was not about buildings it was more about workforce and at the Integrated Care Partnership meeting today a presentation had been given that highlighted the growing pressure on primary care in terms of demand. Ian Wake continued to state that the concept of the Integrated Medical Centres was to create fantastic spaces that would be appealing for new GPs that were coming through training and in the future be able to attract more GPs into Thurrock. That it also had to be recognised that we were in a very competitive market for GPs against a national shortage and that the recruitment of workforce continued to be an enormous challenge. Ian Wake also stated that primary care was much broader than just GPs and that Rural Chaudhari had undertaken a brilliant piece of work on mixed skills workforce with the use  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 117 KB

As part of the Work Programme item, Democratic Services will discuss the potential for an overview and scrutiny project, and how this will be implemented within the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee plus the use of briefing notes, if suitable, throughout the year.

 

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Minutes:

Councillor Ralph briefed Members on the proposed Scrutiny Review and asked for Members input into selecting a potentially topic to investigate and develop across the year so that it can be used to demonstrate measurable outcomes after a year’s work. He also stated that as part of this review we will be looking to reduce the number of “to note” reports and will be introducing a new briefing note system where directors would decide if a full report was needed or simply a briefing note. These briefing notes would be shared with members outside the meeting and members would have the opportunity to ask questions at the meeting which can be done under a new standing agenda item entitled Agreement of Briefing Notes.

 

Councillor Ralph suggested the topic could focus on Mental Health, face to face doctor appointments, long waiting times with NHS 101. Members agreed to discuss topics outside of the meeting.

 

Councillor Holloway welcomed the scrutiny review and how this could measure outcomes but identified that HOSC was different to other overview and security committees as reports to note were received from the CCG and NHS England and it was still very important for members to receive them.

 

Members agreed to add a report on Sexual Violence Joint Strategic Needs Assessment to the work programme.

 

Members agreed to add a report on Primary Care to the work programme.