Meeting: Patient, Public, Carer Voice Committee
Meeting Date: 23 March 2021
Key Decisions and Actions:
The Patient, Public, Carer Voice Committee met on 23 March 2021, Dr Mukerji welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made due to new members joining the group.
New Hospitals programme – update
The group received a presentation of the New Hospitals programme, which was presented by:
• Louise Barker – Communications workstream Projects Manager for the new hospitals programme
• Rebecca Malin – Programme Director for the New Hospitals Programme
• Somnath Kumar – Consultant Cardiologist at LTH, New hospitals Programme Lead
• Manoj Khatri – Consultant Orthopaedic Spinal Surgeon at LTH, New Hospitals Programme Lead
The New Hospitals programme is still in its very early stages and the main driver of the programme is the conditions of the estates at Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Royal Preston Hospital.
The group heard that although the estates at the two hospitals is the main programme driver, the NHS in Lancashire and South Cumbria are working collaboratively with government and partners to agree:
• Why our region needs this investment in our hospitals
• What the new hospital facilities should be doing and how they operate
• How these new hospital facilities would fit with other hospitals and the wider NHS
• Where new facilities should be located
The presentation outlined why we need investment, and aside of the failing conditions of the buildings, there is a need to take into consideration things like:
• Population living longer
• Higher expectation of people’s needs
• More patients presenting with complex conditions that need multi-disciplinary teams of NHS staff to treat them
• A need to integrate mental and physical healthcare provision
• Greater need for beds with access to e.g. to oxygen, specialist Intensive Care and High Dependency Unit capacity and faster ambulance turnaround
Members were given an overview of the pre-consultation communications and engagement and heard that the process will be incredibly difficult, and it will be a long journey as the size of this task is mammoth. The programme must be transparent.
Members were pleased to hear that all the engagement information from the Our Health, Our Care programme had been shared with the New Hospitals Programme team and will be used as part of the New Hospitals engagement.
The presentation was well received, and members had an opportunity to ask questions. It was agreed that the PPCV group would receive regular updates and it looks forward to getting involved in the engagement process.
Work plan and promotion of the group
For the benefit of the new PPCV members, Mrs Tansey provided a brief overview of the work plan and explained about the ICP’s System Delivery Boards priorities, and how the PPCV fits within them.
Mrs Tansey commented that the group had received a presentation at the February meeting in relation to the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) Governance Structure and suggested that a meeting was arranged for the new members to hear about the Governance Structure to better understand how their organisation and work will fit across the ICP.
Members had received a draft promotion slide prior to the meeting taking place, this aided a discussion of how to promote the work of the PPCV group internally. It was agreed that the slide should include what the group is, how it can help and when and how to contact them. Members were asked to email the PPCV Business Support Officer or Mrs Tansey with any further comments they may have.
Partner updates
It was agreed at the February PPCV meeting that a different partner organisation would have the opportunity each month to provide an update of what projects they are currently working on and explain to PPCV members how their organisation undertakes engagement.
The group heard from Liz Mossop, Associate Director, Head of advice and communication services for Preston City Council, who provided a brief overview of some of the current projects the council was undertaking. Liz explained that the council delivers services around the homelessness as is their the statutory duty: the housing standard chiefs go out to see people who are inadequately housed and talk about where and how they live. This is an example of the issues around wider determinants of health which the PPCV has discussed in previous meetings.
Liz commented that Preston has several wards which are very deprived and a number of BAME communities which are and have been clearly affected more by the Covid-19 pandemic but also by other wider determinants of health, including a shorter lifespan.
Liz informed members that although the council deals with Social Care, their work does cross over into health, for example
Preston has received a large amount of funding for a rough sleeper initiative, and the Community Engagement Team is working with a cohort of people with extremely complex needs and a long-standing history of not engaging well with services.
One of the priorities for the Community Engagement Team is addressing food poverty, this involves dealing with local schools, churches and community groups across Preston which are operating in deprived areas. Liz commented that the council is also trying to focus on other areas and not just the targeted deprived areas.
Through this piece of work alone the council has access to a huge network of people that are also engaged with other large networks of people, therefore, inadvertently opening a vast amount of avenues to communicate with people that the council may possibly not have engaged with before.
The group welcomed the update and agreed that it had been very useful and informative and look forward to receiving the next partner update.
Matters for Escalation (and where to)
Completed and Signed off by Sumantra Mukerji Chair, Central Lancashire ICP Patient, Public and Carers Voice Committee