Agenda and minutes

[To receive any apologies for absence]. 

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Phil Page, Tracy Cresswell and Rose Urkovskis. 

Cllr Greg Brackenridge indicated that he would not be able to attend the whole of the meeting due to a Mayoral engagement. 

The Deputy Director of Adult Services sent her apologies as a Council Officer. 

The Managing Director of the Wolverhampton area of the Black Country and West Birmingham CCG sent his apologies. 

[To receive any declarations of interest]. 

There were no declarations of interest. 

[To consider a proposal to merge Urology Services at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust – Report attached]. 

The Strategic Advisor to the Board of, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust introduced the report on the proposal to merge Urology Services at, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.  He said that the proposal was to improve the Urology Services at both, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust and for the residents of Wolverhampton and Walsall.  Both Trusts currently faced different challenges in Urology Services.  Walsall had a small department and staffing challenges to run a safe, 24-hour care service.  Wolverhampton had a larger department but struggled with demand and waiting lists.  By combining the service there would be opportunities to make better use of the Consultant and Clinical workforce.  He also believed services would be better and quicker for patients.  He did appreciate the concerns about patient access and patient travel times, which would form part of the discussion later in the meeting. 

The Lead Urologist Clinician from, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust stated that the department’s priority was to improve the care of the patients in Wolverhampton.  They were the largest Urologist Department in the whole of the Black Country.  They had good staffing levels with ten consultants and nine specialist nurses.  Walsall only had four consultants and one specialist nurse.  They had developed a number of very specialist cancer services over the last ten years, which had some of the very best outcomes in the entire country.  As the specialist services had grown, more work had been attracted to the department and consequently they had found it difficult to increase the capacity to keep up with the demand generated.  The Covid-19 pandemic had exasperated the problems of waiting lists. 

The Lead Urologist Clinician remarked that the proposal was the creation of one Urology Service across both Trusts, which would give one service, with one Clinical Lead and one Management Team running a joint service over two sites.  They would create a team of 15 Consultants with other senior staff and a total of 10 specialist Nurses. The staff would move between the two sites according to their work activity. 

The Lead Urologist Clinician commented that for Wolverhampton residents, all emergency admissions, Urological Care requiring inpatient admission would remain at New Cross Hospital.  All children’s surgery would remain at New Cross Hospital.  Other services, such as radiology, CT Scans, MRI Scans, radiotherapy and chemotherapy would remain at New Cross Hospital.  Outpatient clinics and diagnostic procedures would also remain at New Cross Hospital.  The single change affecting Wolverhampton residents was the movement of most of the day case operations from New Cross Hospital to the Walsall Manor Hospital, instead of to Cannock.  They had been using Cannock for day case surgery for sometime and had considered expanding it, but given the situation they now faced, there was an urgent need to reconsider their previous plans. 

The Lead Urologist Clinician remarked that there were a number of benefits which would be gained from moving the day case surgery to Walsall, it was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.