Agenda item

[Lynne Fieldhouse, Deputy Director of Nursing, Wolverhampton NHS Trust to provide a presentation and invite comments from scrutiny panel relating to the Trust’s Quality Account 2014/15]

Cheryl Etches, Chief Nurse – Royal Wolverhampton Hospital Trust, gave a verbal presentation of the NHS Trust’s Quality Account report by outlining the Trust’s three priorities for the year, these are: urgent care, care of the elderly and end of life strategy. The Trust hopes to build on last year’s work to improve these areas.

Due to maladministration the panel had not received a copy of the report. It was agreed to circulate the report after the meeting for Councillors to offer their comments - should they wish – with a view to possibly forwarding a response to the Trust by 26 June. Councillors expressed their discontent about not being able to see the report and voiced their frustration about not being able to engage with the report fully. There was a consensus that it would not be appropriate to endorse any recommendations until the document was available. The panel were grateful for the report authors’ presentation given the circumstances.

The Chief Nurse and Lynne Fieldhouse, Deputy Chief Nurse Royal Wolverhampton Hospital Trust, provided further details about the Trust’s priorities:

• The Trust is redesigning urgent care pathways as part of its development.
• A & E continues to be a challenging area as large numbers of patients are using the service. The Trust has put in control measures to monitor this and is performing well, but not as high as it believes it can.
• Ambulance turnaround times are to a high standard.
• Dementia is a major focus, and the Trust is pleased to have received CCG funding to run a dementia ward for a year. The Trust is also running ‘dementia friends’ training, which will be completed by all relevant staff members within 12 months.
• Personalised care is a priority due to an aging population. The Trust has identified the issues of pressure sores and ulcers as something that it needs to address. This is a reflection of the types of patients within the community.
• End of life care has improved significantly over the last six months. The Trust has adopted best practice from Salford NHS Trust to ensure staff recognise the needs of bereaved relatives. Mandatory training has been implemented to ensure 8000 staff members will be trained to respond to families appropriately.
• The Trust has increased the number of clinical trials and sees research as a means to enhance practice.
• Newly qualified nurses are receiving an extended period of supervision to help them embed in the organisation. This has helped staff retention of young and oversees nurses.
• Mortality data suggests a valid reduction in hospital mortality rates.
• Patient satisfaction rates are high (between 90 and 93%), but staff satisfaction rates are slightly lower (78%).
• The Trust will continue to focus on the integration of services at Cannock Hospital with the view to creating an elective centre in order to protect emergency beds at New Cross. This will be of importance during the winter period when the need for beds increases. 

Cllr O’Neill questioned whether parity of esteem of mental health was an issue for the Trust. It was acknowledged that this issue was of importance despite not being in the verbal update.

Cllr Simkins voiced his concern that the Trust had not changed its priorities since last year and also expressed concern about the integration of services at Cannock Hospital. Jean Hancox, HealthWatch, also questioned why the Trust had not included HealthWatch on its mailing list for the Quality Account, which Cllr Collingswood also expressed concern about. With other panel members’ support, she queried the accuracy of the responses to hospital surveys noting that many people would not complete surveys. The Chief Nurse noted that whilst the hospital can provide feedback forms, it cannot coerce patients into completing them.

The panel also raised the issue of nurse training and sought clarity on whether numbers were increasing or decreasing. The Chief Nurse explained that post Francis Report the need for more nurses has become a national issue. She explained that the Trust needed to be innovative about investing in nurses and that this issue was reported on internally on a monthly basis. Cllr Thompson added that she also had concerns about nursing and training.

Resolved

To note the verbal report and forward the Quality Account report to all panel members to allow for Councillor to make comments should they wish.