Agenda item

Simon Knight UCLH was present and outlined the presentation to the Committee.

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

·         Key priorities include – to improve patient experience, maintain excellent mortality ratings, reduce the number of hospital acquired pressure ulcers, meet standards for how long patients wait from referral for their treatment, shorter waiting times for diagnostic tests, shorter waiting times for different stages of cancer pathways, shorter waiting times in emergency, delivering more efficient care so that financial targets can be delivered

·         Waiting times in A&E have been challenging as has been the case for many trusts and a recovery action plan is in place and there is close working with Camden and Islington emergency care boards to address these issues. One of the main issues has been the high occupancy levels for beds at UCLH. Key actions   include a new primary care service in the Emergency Department, additional step down beds at St.Pancras (opening on 16 January) and weekly senior level meetings with Camden and Islington partners to manage delayed transfers of care and discharging patients earlier in the day

·         There are significant financial challenges and in 2016/17 there is around £11m defecit forecast. This is in line with the assigned control total and an improvement on the previous year when there was a £31 million defecit

·         In 2017/18 UCLH are planning for a surplus position of £5.3 million

·         This is within the context of significant financial challenges including a 2% tariff efficiency, loss of £3.1million education funding and an increase of £2 million in PFI costs. Discussions are taking place as to whether funding can be obtained to buy UCLH out of the PFI contract , which will deliver a significant financial benefit. Members felt that this would require a lot of upfront costs and whether this was feasible, however welcomed this approach

·         There will be increased surgical capacity at the Tower and there will be more inpatient and other surgical capacity available

·         In relation to attendances at A&E it was stated that there had been a national increase in attendance due to an ageing population and whilst this has not been experienced to the same extent yet at UCLH they expected this to increase in future

·         It was stated that the Sustainability and Transformation Plan proposals may be able to assist in looking at other ways of dealing with problems with the service by sharing of services and better use of resources

·         The GP service provided at UCLH was working well and helping to reduce attendances at A&E

·         There were 30/40 patients at any one time in UCLH that did not need to be there and there is a need to continue to look at ways of reducing this by providing better care in more appropriate settings

·         It was noted that there had been improvements in dealing with Islington on delayed discharges and this was welcomed

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted and UCLH provide, if possible, details of the costs of buying out the PFI contract and the long term savings to the hospital of doing this

The Chair thanked Simon Knight for attending