Agenda item

[Dr Jonathan Odum, Medical Director, RWHT, to present report]

Dr Jonathan Odum, Medical Director, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, gave an overview of the report detailing progress towards the delivery of a seven-day care provision to patients admitted to the hospital as either an emergency or urgent case.

The Medical Director explained that the seven-day provision is aimed at offering equability of patient care at the weekend and all acute trusts are expected to meet 10 national standards by 2020 as detailed in the report.

The Medical Director advised the panel of the background to the policy and how it links to others plans aimed at providing access to clinical services throughout a patient’s stay in an acute hospital bed.

The Medical Director advised the panel that RWHT was on one of the early adopters and is committed to achieving the four priority standards detailed in para 2.8 of the report.

The Medical Director advised the panel that RWHT was meeting the 90% targets for each of the standards and see it as a quality mark for the service.

The Medical Director advised the panel of the benefits to the hospital of having access to consultants who can assess and discharge patients where appropriate. The Medical Director commented on the challenges nationally to delivering seven-day service, for example, the availability of services such as hospital social work teams who are not available at the weekend.

The panel discussed the findings detailed in the table in para 2.18   which gave a summary of progress against the six other national standards.

David Watts, Director of Adult Services, commented on the challenges to achieving the stated aims and need for further discussions about how they can be delivered – for example, the costs involved of having a senior social worker to assess and accept patients and whether the council or home should fund the extra costs to provide standby cover at the weekend. The Chief Executive commented on the workforce shortages across the sector and national challenge hospitals face in recruiting nursing and specialist staff needed to deliver a safe and efficient service, in addition to finding the extra consultants needed.

The panel discussed the impact of weekend discharge on the hospital as part of seven-day service had on the workload for consultants and other services on Monday. The Medical Director commented that the analysis of results suggests that the introduction on seven-day care services had not led to expected benefits such as reduced workload on Monday’s for staff.

The Medical Director commented that the evidence supporting the benefits of offering seven-day care for people admitted for emergency or urgent care is not convincing and that further investigation is needed to better understand the links between the factors that determine patient outcomes. This may involve analysis of patient mortality notes.

The panel agreed to receive an update on performance against the six standards detailed in para 2.18 of the report.

The panel thanked Dr Odum for the presentation.

Resolved: Dr Jonathan Odum, Medical Director, RWHT< to present a report of progress against the six national standards and lessons learnt on the effectiveness of winter planning to a future meeting of the panel.