Agenda item

Sioban Harrington, Director of Strategy and Deputy Chief Executive, Whittington NHS Trust was present for discussion of this item and outlined the report.

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

·         The performance of the Trust has been rated as good following the CQC inspection and had been rated outstanding in the caring services area

·         There had only been 3 NHS Trusts that had received this rating in London Borough of Islington

·         It was noted that the Trust had had a Quality summit the previous week to look at all the areas in order to address the areas that needed improvement however the CQC report was an excellent one

·         In response to a question it was stated that there would be an increase of 5 consultant posts which would increase capacity and staffing levels

·         In response to a question in relation to the risk register it was stated that flatter structures had been introduced and an integrated updated system introduced

·         The Chief Executive of Whittington stated that the Whittington Hospital is a community hospital and had 200 adult beds. The numbers that were attending A&E had been increasing and numbers had gone up by 5%. The target for meeting the 4 hour emergency response time was in the mid 80%, as opposed to the 95% target

·         Progress has been made in reducing patient stays of over 7 days and work is taking place with Local Authorities to try to reduce this and the Trust were working to discharge patients before 11a.m. However, there is a particular problem with mental health patients as once their physical illness had been treated there is a lack of mental health beds in the system to discharge them to

·         The Trust were endeavouring to use the bed capacity in a smarter manner

·         In response to a question on palliative care it was stated that the Trust had an end of life group that met every 6 weeks

·         It was stated that there had been problems with confidentiality of patient data and that this had taken time to address but this has now been rectified

·         In response to a question in relation to ligature points it was stated that this had been an area of disagreement with the CQC assessors but this has now been resolved

·         The Committee welcomed the report and the significant improvements made in the past 2 years

·         It was stated that the improvement action plan would be circulated to Members of the Committee

·         Reference was made to the fact that the recent unsatisfactory report on North Middlesex A&E had led to more emergency patients being referred to the Whittington and the Trust were looking at bed flow and working with partners to try and reduce length of stay in hospital. The industrial action of the junior doctors had also compounded these problems

·         In response to a question in regard to mandatory training it was stated that whilst this was 10% below target, it was felt that a 90% rate was reasonable and better than 2 years previously. In addition, there was a need to improve staff appraisals, however the CQC had commended the Trust on the training provided in relation to children and adults at risk

·         Reference was made to the fact that future inspections by the CQC would be unannounced and done in a different less resource led level as the current inspections were expensive

·         It was stated that the Trust were about to employ a Head of Improvement to take things forward

RESOLVED:

That the Whittington NHS Trust improvement plan be circulated to Members

The Chair thanked Steve Hitchins and Simon Pleydell for attending