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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 4, Town Hall, Upper Street, N1 2UD. View directions

Contact: Peter Moore  020 7527 3252

Items
No. Item

42.

Introductions

Minutes:

The Chair introduced Members and officers to the meeting

43.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

 Councillor Martin Klute (Chair) and Councillor Janet Burgess, Executive Member Health and Social Care

44.

Declaration of Substitute Members

Minutes:

Councillor Jeapes stated that she was substitutng for Councillor Klute

45.

Declarations of Interest

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

 

*(a)Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

 (b)Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out

  duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

 (c)Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body

 in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

 (d)Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

 (e)Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

 (f)Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have

  a beneficial interest.

 (g)Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

 

Minutes:

None

46.

Order of business

Minutes:

The Chair stated that the order of business would be as per the agenda

47.

Confirmation of minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 157 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 14 September 2017 be confirmed and the Chair be authorised to sign them

48.

Chair's Report

The Chair will update the Committee on recent events.

Minutes:

None

49.

Public Questions

Minutes:

The Chair outlined the procedure for Public questions and filming and recording at meetings

50.

Health and Wellbeing Board Update

Minutes:

None

51.

London Ambulance Service - Performance update pdf icon PDF 490 KB

Minutes:

Peter Rhodes, Assistant Director of Operations, North Central London, London Ambulance Service was present and outlined the report and made a presentation to the Committee -

 

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

 

·         In 2016/17 the LAS handled over 1.8 million emergency calls from across London, approximately 5000 calls every day. This is a 1.4% increase on 2015/16. Category A (life threatening) incidents were up 9% compared to the previous year

·         Average time with a patient is 47 minutes, and there is an ageing population with complex health needs

·         Patients with dementia, mental health needs, and obesity provide increasing challenges for the LAS

·         Performance has improved, but this has been challenging given the unprecedented demand on the service

·         Work is taking place with the wider NHS to reduce pressures on the service, looking at frequent callers, health care professional calls, GP admissions and NHS 111 requests for assistance. Work is also taking place with NHS England to improve hospital handover times

·         The service enhanced its expertise in treating patients with mental health needs – employing 5 mental health nurses, providing training to frontline crews, and partnering with MIND to deliver specialist training in the Control Rooms

·         Work is taking place with care homes to develop ways that requests can be managed for assistance more appropriately

·         More crews and vehicles are out than last year and there is increased hours for ambulance and solo responders available, equating to 10200 hours per week

·         A more proactive approach to demand management on social media is being adopted, encouraging Londoners to only call in a genuine emergency, and consider their other healthcare options

·         The increased threat of terrorism, and focus on resilience, has been important, and the LAS has been working with other emergency services and partners in London

·         In 2016/17 improving the quality of services remained a key focus, and the LAS got a good rating from the CQC for the NHS 111 service for South East London in February 2017. In June 2017 the LAS 999 CQC rating moved from inadequate, to requiring improvement, reflecting the fact that significant improvements have been made in all of the 5 areas that make up the rating. There is still work to do in the next few months, and the LAS will continue to work with NHS partners, and staff, to make the necessary improvements

·         The response to the most seriously ill and injured patients has also improved, and at the end of April the LAS were the top performing ambulance service in the country for reaching these patients within eight minutes – against a backdrop of record demand

·         The CQC are confident that the service should exit special measures within a month

·         The CQC stated that patients in the capital were receiving outstanding care and significant improvements have been made in every one of the 5 inspected areas, including significant improvements in emergency preparedness resilience and response

·         Areas of outstanding practice include staff behaviours, and interactions demonstrated outstanding care,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

52.

Scrutiny Review - Health Implications of Air Quality - witness evidence - Verbal pdf icon PDF 92 KB

Minutes:

Ian Mudway, Kings College was present for discussion of this matter. The revised SID had been circulated for Members, following the amendments made at the last meeting. A progress report on the implementation of the recommendations from the Environment and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee in 2013 was laid round.

 

During consideration of the evidence the following main points were made –

 

·         Pollution from traffic includes exhaust emissions, brake/tyre wear, resuspension of road dust, particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, ultrafine particles, black carbon (soot), and VOC’s, PAH’s, metals

·         There is now a significant evidence base to identify the effects on health of pollution

·         Pollution has an effect on the quality of life and increases vulnerability of members of the population to illness and premature death

·         Pollution can cause inflammation, impaired lung function, injury/remodelling, impaired microbial defences, blood viscosity, promotes atherosclerosis, impaired vascular function, ischaemia, and arrhythmias

·         Pollution results in 29000 premature deaths each year, 4300 in Greater London, and costs £26 billion a year

·         There is evidence that improving air pollution delivers measurable health benefits

·         It was stated that there needed to be behaviour shifts and that people needed to be encouraged to walk and to cycle – there were many unnecessary journeys made by car of under 1km

·         Health benefits would increase if people avoided busy roads and the pollution these contain and drivers need to realise that when sitting in traffic jams they are inhaling a toxic combination of pollutants

·         It was stated that Councils could restrict parking spaces and this would encourage more people to walk or cycle

·         Reference was made to the fact that whilst schools could not help where they were located, improvements could be made if air filters were installed, which would improve air quality

·         Ian Mudway added that whilst people should be encouraged to change behaviours, it was often more effective to impose regulation and this was the major source of improvement of air quality in the past

·         In response to a question it was stated that air quality in London had recently slowly stared to improve as a result of the measures taken

·         Members enquired as to the best documents to source in relation to air quality and health and it was stated that these were the Royal College of Physicians Every Step You Take report – Executive Summary, and the US Environment Protection Agency report on Air Pollution. The London Air Agency website is also a good information source

·         Reference was made to the Air Quality scrutiny and that this should be referred when completed to the Environment and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee

·         In response to a question it was stated that in addition to the pollutants from diesel and other particulates, brake wear and other components on a car contributed to pollution

·         Reference was also made to pollution on the London Underground and that discussion is taking place with TfL, however there had to date been no comprehensive study to assess air quality on the London Underground

 

 

The Chair thanked Ian  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

53.

Work Programme 2017/18 pdf icon PDF 118 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted