Agenda item

Siobhan Harrington and Joe Morrisroe Whittington NHS Trust, was present for discussion of this item and made a presentation to the Committee, copy interleaved.

During discussion of the report the following main points were made –

·         Whittington Care organisation (community and acute services) provide services to a population of 500000 – mainly to L.B.Islington and Haringey

·          There is annual income of c£295m and a staff of c4,400

·         The Whittington Estates and Facilities budget is c£24m and the in -house capacity to deliver major investment estate transformation is limited

·         Hospital site – 33% built pre 1948 and 18% post 2005 and there are 9 community freehold sites and service delivery from over 40 community sites. There is a backlog of c£17m

·         The Trust strategy was published in 2016 and stated aims are – a modern estate designed to deliver clinical services, and estate that enables care to be provided and when people need it and an estate that meets national guidelines regarding patient space, privacy and dignity

·         Each transformation must support the delivery of new models of care and improve the efficiency of the Trust’s estate and the Trust needs a long-term strategy to maintain and invest in the estate, to reduce the backlog and improve the environment for patients and staff

·         Challenges include NHS capital funding availability being severely constrained, the Trust’s capacity to move forward at pace and alone is limited but doing nothing is not an option. The Trust does not have the capital or capacity to develop and implement a long term transformational programme

·         The Trust’s approach is to procure a partner who will support the Trust with commercial and real estate experience

·         A Strategic Estates Partnership is a 50:50 joint partnership between the Trust and its partner that seeks to maximise the potential of the Trust’s estate to support and improve the delivery of clinical services

·         As a non-Foundation Trust the Trust will enter into a contractual relationship with the partner to form the SEP. The SEP will bring a range of estates expertise, providing strategic advice to the Trust, helping to prepare an estates master plan, developing business cases, project managing new projects and identifying sources of capital. The relationship with the SEP is non-exclusive and each project is agreed on a case by case basis, but fits into a broader, strategic master plan and this approach is being increasingly used across the NHS

·         The Trust’s priorities for improvement include redevelopment of maternity and neo-natal services, staff residences, modernisation and rationalisation of the community estate, reprovision of facilities for specialist services for Community Children’s services and reducing carbon emissions by developing a sustainable energy and infrastructure policy

·         The SEP will enable the Trust to deliver its Estates strategy in a positive way, that focuses on redevelopment and can be a catalyst in development of integrated care and CHIN’s in both Islington and Haringey

·         Staff and community engagement will be essential in future detailed proposals and individual business cases will be essential

·         Discussions were taking place with Camden and Islington NHS Trust about transfer of beds to the Whittington site

·         Concern was expressed that the private developer would wish to sell off assets in  order to generate a profit. It was stated that it was felt that a partner could provide fresh thinking on how assets were managed and given that the Trust operated across 32 sites and that this is not necessarily an efficient way to operate. The Whittington stated that they would report back to the Committee on proposals at the earliest possible opportunity

·         Members expressed the view that effective communication of the proposals is vital and that Whittingt6n should reassure the community that they will maintain and improve services within the locations that they are accustomed to

·         It was noted that the Whittington were committed to retaining its maternity unit

·         It was noted that Whittington were working on a communications strategy to engage the community in the process which would involve the use of the internet, the Community Forum and local newspapers

·         The Whittingtonn strategy since 2010 had been to build a stronger service and model

The Chair thanked Siobhan Harrington for attending