Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

No apologies for absence were received at the meeting.

To receive any declarations of interest.

Councillor Andrew Kerby declared a discloseable pecuniary interest as his partner was employed as a District Nurse for the Dorset Healthcare University Foundation Trust.  He was currently awaiting a full dispensation from Legal Services, however, he confirmed that he had received the appropriate clearance for this meeting.

Councillor Rebecca Knox made a general interest that she was a member of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Councillor Jon Orrell declared a disclosable pecuniary interest as a practising General Practioner (GP).  The Monitoring Officer had advised that his interest was not sufficiently linked to the business on the agenda and that he could therefore take part in the meeting that day.  He was in the process of obtaining a dispensation from the Chief Executive in respect of future meetings and would withdraw immediately if any discussion impacted on how he was funded as a GP.

To note the Committee's terms of reference:-

Overview and scrutiny is a statutory activity of the Council, its powers and responsibilities are set out in detail in the Council’s Constitution.  The Council will appoint members to 4 Overview and Scrutiny Committees:- Health, People, Place and Resources.

Each Overview and Scrutiny Committee will perform all those functions conferred on it by the Local Government Act 2000 and each committee can review and scrutinise decisions and actions made by the Council, relevant to their area.

In the absence of any alternative joint arrangements having been entered into, the Health Scrutiny Committee shall be the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the purposes of fulfilling the Council’s statutory powers in relation to health scrutiny.

The Committee noted its terms of reference.

The Chairman confirmed that the terms of reference would be considered during the informal session following the meeting.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 7 March 2019 (signed by the previous Chairman).

The minutes of the Dorset Health Scrutiny Committee on 7 March 2019 that had been signed by the previous Chairman prior to the inception of the Dorset Council were noted.

To receive questions or statements on the business of the committee from town and parish councils and members of the public.

There were no public questions or statements made at the meeting.

To consider a report by Elaine Hurll, Principle Programme Lead, NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group.

The Committee considered a report by Elaine Hurll, the Principle Programme Lead, NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) who gave a power point presentation.

The shape of the review had been fully co-produced and reflected input by a broad range of consultees. The review stages included the following elements and interdependency with the Dorset Healthcare Estates Review:-

·        needs analysis and view seeking

·        options development

·        NHS assurance

·        consultation

·        implementation

The preferred Option 1 fitted with the national direction of travel and included a High Dependency Unit, 1 recovery unit in East Dorset, 1 recovery unit in West Dorset; a community recovery team and supported housing.  It was confirmed that the High Dependency Unit would need to be developed as there was currently no provision.

Members commented that it would be helpful to have a plan showing where all of the existing units were located in order to better understand this in the context of the estates review.  It was suggested that a copy of this was circulated to the committee.

Members particularly focussed on the supported housing element of the proposal and in response to questions on this and other areas of discussion, the following points were made:-

·        That supported housing could be either shared or individual units, with a mixed range of tenancy offer depending on a person's needs whilst also recognising that moving home could be extremely stressful;

·        Delivery of supported housing could be secured as a result of development partnerships with a focus on providing housing solutions;

·        That there had been no local opposition to rehab housing due to the support in place and the use of "good neighbour" policies;

·        That costings should be revisited in light of anticipated increased demand in future years although it was not possible to accurately predict levels of provision beyond 2028. Discussions were ongoing in relation to funding by local authorities through Section 117 agreements.

·        That the assertive outreach team would be the service that maintained contact with people who were at risk of losing contact with mental health teams.  On this point, comment was made that some people were discharged from rehabilitation services when they did not necessarily wish to be discharged at that point.

·        There was no flexibility to change the location of recovery units which were in urban rather than rural settings due to lack of funding and a need to use the existing estate.  However work would continue in both urban and rural settings with a variety of health and wellbeing activities that people could access. It was anticipated that changes to the system would mean that hospital would not become the place where people lived for any longer than necessary.

·        A proposal to maintain 40 inpatient beds at Alderney Hospital and the creation of the 2 dementia wards as a centre of excellence had been developed as part of the Dementia Services Review

Some concern was expressed that the supply of supported housing could run out and that it would be important to examine the way  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Committee considered a report containing briefings for information concerning

the following topics:-

• Freestyle Libre Device Commissioning Arrangements
• Dorset Suicide Prevention Strategy
• Planned changes to the Dorset Diabetic Eye Screening Programme (Dorset DESP)
• Planned Relocation of Moorfields Eye Hospital
• Quality Accounts

It was noted that a full briefing on the Dorset Suicide Prevention Strategy would be provided at the Health and Wellbeing Board that afternoon.

Noted

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

The Chairman provided a verbal update on the referral of the Clinical Services Review proposals that had been referred to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care by the former Dorset Health Scrutiny Committee. The Secretary of State had written back to advise that the request had been referred to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel.  The Panel advised that a response was unlikely to be received before August 2019, bearing in mind other work in progress and noting the Hearing relating to a Judicial Review of the process due to take place on 24 July 2019.