Agenda item

This report provides Members with an overview of Medway Community Healthcare’s current position of community health services provision.

Discussion:

Members considered a report which gave an overview of Medway Community Healthcare’s (MCH) current position of community health services provision.

The Director of Operations at MCH advised Members that there were over 150 vacancies, with community nursing having high levels of vacancies. It was difficult to recruit to occupational therapists and advertising was being targeted at professional magazines as well as holding recruitment days, which were successful.MCH also backfilled vacancies with agencies where possible

Members raised the following issues:

·         Staff wellbeing – noting the high levels ofsickness and staff turnover, whether MCH had connected with local universities and colleges to encourage students to apply was queried. Members were advised that MCH had links with universities and colleges and had worked with 10 students whereby they shadowed the intermediate care services team, 6 of whom showed a commitment to continue. However, more could be done.

Concern was expressed that anxiety, depression and stress levels were still high in spite of the wellbeing measures MCH had put in place. Members were advised that as community nursing was very stressful, staff were encouraged to be more open about stress and it was better for this to be reported so there could then be a dialogue. Staff were encouraged to take time out to access health and wellbeing services and whether these could be provided out of ours was being looked at. There was a 24/7 counselling helpline for all staff and their immediate family.

A comment was made that it would have been useful to see more information from the staff survey. The Director of Operations undertook to provide more on this in the next update.

The Director of Operations advised that benchmarking information showed MCH were average in terms of turnover across Kent and Medway. More HR support was now available to hold face to face meetings with staff leaving the organisation to learn from this. A buddy system had reduced turnover in some key areas, and this needed to be rolled out. There was a good apprenticeship scheme with good retention levels. Community nursing was a key element of staff turnover, but it was an area that was hard to recruit to.

·         Care navigators – the point was made that more could be done to improve communications and provide a holistic service when visiting clients. The Director of Operations agreed that communication around handovers could always be improved. The team met with the Local Medical Committees and Primary Care teams to discuss challenges and look at improvements and see if they could work smarter.

·         Referrals – concern was expressed at the nature of the two referrals made from outside the organisation to adult social care regarding the care provided by MCH, one of these was in relation to a patient fall and one was in relation to a medication administration error. The Director of Operations assured Members that medication errors were fully investigated, and the lessons and findings were shared with the wider team. If necessary, disciplinary action would be taken.

Decision:

The Committee agreed to note the report and request a further update in 12 months.