DECISION

1.    To note the report of the Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee and agree the action plan in response to the report recommendations.

Action by:

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, HEALTH, ADULTS AND COMMUNITY (D. RADLEY)

(Strategy, Policy and Performance Officer (D. Kerr)

The Mayor introduced the report. He highlighted it as an excellent piece of Scrutiny work adding value to the services of the Council.

Jackie Sullivan from Barts NHS Trust introduced herself to the Meeting. She explained that there were specific actions for Barts in ensuring patients were appropriately cared for by the reablement service, for example by ensuring integrated care plans were developed early. One specific issue that was still being worked on was on ensuring consistency in the style of the medicine charts used.

During the discussion a number of issues were noted including the importance of tackling loneliness and in ensuring that staff considered a holistic view of each patient/service user. Finally the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Dave Chesterton, thanked everyone who had been involved in preparing the report and action plan.

The Mayor welcomed the report, thanked everyone including Barts for their work and agreed the recommendation as set out.

RESOLVED

1.    To note the report of the Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee and agree the action plan in response to the report recommendations.

The Chair introduced the paper which provided a report and recommendations of the Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee’s review of the LBTH Reablement Service.  She said that she could see the value of the service to the Council and pointed out that there were areas for improvement, including:

·         Patients’ discharge and relationship with the hospital

·         Communications and scrutiny

·         Wider partners

Mr Burbidge expressed concerns that the Older People’s Reference Group were not aware of the reablement service and were not able to provide observations on the service.  He also sought reassurance that if the Better Care Fund was taken away that funding would still be available for the reablement service.

Paul Swindells, Reablement Team Manager, stated that one of the main themes in the recommendations was how they engage with service users.  He pointed out that, as an adult social care service, they hadn’t engaged with users as effectively as they should have.  He added that they were now considering how to acquire meaningful feedback. 

Mr Swindells explained that other main themes in the recommendations referred to the need to engage more with partners, including partners not associated with health and how to spread the word about the reablement service.  He said that feedback indicated that people viewed reablement in a negative way and that there were misunderstandings about the service’s purpose.

Ms Sullivan acknowledged that discharge practices could be improved and stated that patient reviews were regularly undertaken.  She said that conversations were happening with the Director of Nursing in relation to when it is appropriate to discharge a patient and said that at present, they were trying to discharge before noon. 

Councillor Chesterton referred to blister medical packs and the fact that it was difficult to assign responsibility to put them together.  He suggested the possibility of volunteers at the hospital making up blister packs.  Ms Sullivan responded that she would look into the issue but took the view that it was unlikely that pharmacists would be comfortable with volunteers dealing with medication. 

Tim Oliver, a representative from Healthwatch Tower Hamlets, asked about the possibility of, after being discharged discharge, the patient’s prescription being sent straight to the pharmacy as this might free up some time for the hospital.  Mr Hall and Ms Sullivan agreed to take the suggestion away for further discussion.

Denise Radley, Corporate Director, Health, Adults & Community said that the work completed around ‘Ageing Well’ which could be used going forward.  She explained the funding for the reablement service was not a typical arrangement.  She added that the core service was adult social care and that needed to be considered as things prpgressed.

The Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee agreed to note the report and recommendations.