Agenda item

Simon Knight and Jonathan Fielden were present for discussion of this item and made a presentation to the Committee, a copy of which is interleaved. Apologies were given for Fiona McKenzie, Governor at UCLH who could not be in attendance that evening as she was unwell.

During the presentation the following main points were made –

·         Key strategic priorities for providing specialist care are cancer, neurosciences, women’s health with a strong and high quality foundation in acute and emergency medicine, surgery and critical care

·         Clinical priorities for 2015/16 are to reduce hospital acquired pressure ulcers, reduce cases of sepsis, reduce cardiac arrests/cases where there has been no detection of deterioration in the patient’s condition, reduce medication errors, reduce hospital acquired infections and develop speciality outcome measures

·         In patient satisfaction was 81.6% and patient feedback was gathered through the annual national survey and friends and families scheme either on line or in paper format. Multiple methods of collecting information were used and these were being constantly developed

·         Accident and Emergency access times were above the London average however due to the proximity of UCLH this tended to attract users who were not residents of the area, predominantly the 20-40 year old age group

·         There was a 9 phase building programme for improving ambulatory care that would take until 2018 to complete. Medical record keeping had been improved and regularly checked and the system was moving over to electronic record keeping

·         There were significant  financial challenges which has led to a savings requirement of between £20 and £45 million each year for the past 6 years and 2015/16 will require at least the upper end of that range. Cost improvement programmes had been implemented and these are challenged for safety and clinical purposes to ensure quality of care. UCLH is strongly clinically led and this assists in this process

·         Transformation systems are in place to deliver improved staff/patient experience

·         UCLH has a strong focus on working closely with local CCG’s and Councils to avoid unnecessary admissions to hospital and is redesigning services to focus on prevention care in community settings

·         The maternity service is expanding and new capacity is planned to increase births from 6000 to 8000 per annum

·         Reference was made to the fact that UCLH had a good reputation with regard to cancer care and enquired what outreach work was taking place. It was stated that UCLH were trying to get patients to present earlier and they were working with other hospitals and other organisations to obtain a smoother pathway to treatment and reduce waiting times

·         Discussion took place as to the waiting time for prostate cancer and it was stated that 60% of patients were seen within 62 days, however this is sometimes due to patients wanting time to come to terms with having treatment

·         In response to a question it was stated that there was working group looking at urgent care models and work was going on with both Islington and Camden in order to reduce Accident and Emergency admissions and redirect patients where appropriate to other services

·         UCLH did not admit patients unless they needed to and only 12%-16% of patients presenting at Accident and Emergency were admitted to hospital, which was lower than other hospitals in London. In addition the ambulatory care service that had been introduced was an attempt to have a default model of care and UCLH were trying to ensure the Better Care Fund scheme was used in the most advantageous way possible

·         It was stated that UCLH worked with the Institute of Neurology in developing a joint strategy for neurological care

·         The Chair enquired whether any progress had been made in changing the age profile of patients presenting at A&E and it was stated that this would require a change culture over a number of years but this was being looked at

RESOLVED:

That UCLH provide the Committee with details of the average waiting times for patients with prostate cancer, including average time of referral to UCLH of patients coming from another Trust

The Chair thanked Simon Knight and Jonathan Fielden for attending