Agenda item

This report sets out details of a powerpoint presentation from the Chief Nurse, NHS Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), on the update from the NHS following the Francis Inquiry into Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust last year.

Discussion: 

The Chief Nurse, NHS Medway Clinical Commissioning Group gave a powerpoint presentation on an update from the NHS following the Francis inquiry. 

He referred to the findings of the inquiry, the key themes and aims and recommendations and explained that the actions arising from the inquiry were everyone’s responsibility across health and social care.  He referred to subsequent independent reviews and then, more specifically, the Medway Clinical Commissioning Group’s internal corporate assurance which set out the local action plan key elements which were:

• Absolute need for duty of candour
• Fundamental need for cohesive working across health and social care
• Ensure responsibility and accountability
• Address local issues with clarity and conviction to improve quality standards

He and the Deputy Chief Nurse, North Kent Clinical Commissioning Group who also attended the meeting responded to Members’ questions.

Responding to a question about examples of where improvements had been made, the Chief Nurse explained that there were some quick wins, one of which had been the reviewing in depth complaints received producing qualitative data, and much closer working between himself and the Chief Nurse at Medway Maritime Hospital.  Another area where there had been particular progress related to the intensive work with staff, which allowed them to raise anonymously any grumbles, or issues, which they felt needed to be addressed.

In answer to a further question, he stated that the friends and family test would be a key measure of how things were improving in the hospital but accepted that time would be needed before some of the improvements were felt.  The Healthwatch Medway representative requested that further work is done with them to ensure that the views of service users were heard.  He felt that the Patient and Public Involvement Forum from NHS Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) should be involved.  The Chief Nurse said that the Patient Engagement Group and Patient Opinion Group were already involved in the action plan and he welcomed the input.

An explanation was given to a query regarding why only 72 of the Francis Inquiry were being taken forward by the NHS locally, it was stated that the 290 recommendations applied to a wide range of organisations and the 72 being worked on were those applicable to CCGs.

The representative from the Pensioners Forum thanked the Chief Clinical Officer, NHS Medway CCG for attending a recent meeting of the forum to promote the PULSE campaign to that group but stated that, the follow through on the campaign had shown that the hospital were not seemingly co-operating with the campaign because delays were experienced once they were asked for an urgent appointment.  The Chief Clinical Officer, NHS Medway CCG undertook to speak to the Pensioners Forum representative outside of the meeting.

A further question was put forward about what a cultural barometer was? It was stated that one of the failings at Mid Staffs had been that cultural problems within the Trust had been ignored along with staff concerns.  In Medway there is now a regular survey of staff to find out how they are feeling and to assess what the organisation felt like overall as there was a danger that if the workforce were not happy they would not feel they could recommend the hospital to friends and family.  As such this produced a cultural barometer of how the Trust was performing.

The Deputy Director, Children and Adults stated that there was definitely a social care element involved in the outcome of the inquiry and referred to a number of cases where there had been scandals in the community of social care.  In his view there was a duty on all partners to commission well and it was important to make commissioning decisions, which ensured good outcomes and quality of service rather than taking hasty decisions in an attempt to cut costs.  He emphasised the importance of everyone playing their part and being accountable and welcomed the progress being made to work together in partnership and share concerns in order to enhance the safety of service users.

Decision:

The Chief Nurse, Deputy Chief Nurse and Deputy Director, Children and Adults were thanked for their contribution to the presentation and the report was noted.