Issue - meetings

Julia Ross, Director of Civic Engagement, Barrie Collins, Director of Nursing & Professional Development, Sharon Jones, Director of Community Services and Debbie Lyndon-Taylor, Assistant Director Adult Services, West Kent PCT will be in attendance for this item.

(Julia Ross, Director of Civic Engagement, Barrie Collins, Director of Nursing & Professional Development, Sharon Jones, Director of Community Services and Debbie Lyndon-Taylor, Assistant Director Adult Services, West Kent PCT were in attendance for this item)

(1)       The following Members made declaration of interest:-

·              Mr Fittock - Member of Benenden Hospital

·              Mr Horne – Member of the League of Friends, Tonbridge Cottage Hospital

·              Mr London – Member of the League of Friends, Sevenoaks Hospital

(2)       A copy of the presentation given on the West Kent Community Hospitals Review is set out as Appendix 2 to these Minutes.  The Committee was informed that the recommendations in the West Kent Primary Care Trust Board report for July 2007 had been approved.  Mrs Ross spoke about the further work that needed to be done relating to the Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) at Edenbridge, the Tonbridge Cottage Hospital and the Livingstone Hospital in Dartford.  Ms Harrison said she felt that, where beds were being done away with, it was important that the Primary Care Trust explain what they were replacing these beds with; communication with the public was key to service-change.  This was acknowledged by Mrs Ross who very much hoped that local authorities would act as community leaders in concert with health colleagues.

(3)       Health colleagues said they aimed to reduce the number of unnecessary journeys and provide more services in community hospitals, including bed-based “step up” and “step down” services, end-of-life care and neuro-rehabilitation.  Mrs Ross informed the Committee that the Pembury Private Finance Initiative (PFI) hospital plans were predicated on the idea of a whole lot of services being provided in the community.  Turning to specific local issues, Mr Horne said that the original review of community hospitals undertaken by the consultancy firm Tribal had not been favourably perceived in the community.  The failure to come up with split tariff arrangements with local acute-service providers was detrimental to service-provision in the community hospitals.  The need for 24-hour and seven-days-a-week care in some cases had not been properly acknowledged.  Local GPs in the Tonbridge area had not been consulted, which ran counter to the idea of Practice-based Commissioning.  Mrs Ross said in response that the plans for Tonbridge Cottage Hospital still had not been finalised, that consultation would take place and that Mr Horne would be fully involved in this process.

(4)       Mrs Ross also confirmed that consultation would take place on the proposals for the Livingstone Hospital at Dartford when these had been finalised.  With regard to the split tariff Mrs Ross said that this was still being discussed and that there were no outcomes to report yet.  Ms Jones added that she had met with GPs on at least two occasions to discuss issues that had been raised in a letter to the Primary Care Trust.  She argued that achieving an optimal length of stay in community hospitals would allow more people to be treated using fewer beds.  She said that it would not be possible to keep surplus beds  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45