Agenda and minutes

1a. Apologies

1b. Matters arising and notes from previous meeting

1c. Any Declarations of Interest

The Chairman welcomed representatives and facilitators to the meeting

Notes of the Forum meeting held on 2 October 2008 and the joint meeting with the Dover North Forum on 20 November 2008 had been circulated and there were no matters arising.

Portfolio for Corporate Resources and Performance, Dover District Council, has been invited to give a short briefing on the DDC budget.

DDC Councillor Ian Ward gave a presentation:

·        Government funding for local authorities severely limited; council tax capping continued: inflationary fuel and power costs had a significant effect. 

·        Contract renewals, pensions, regeneration agenda and homelessness impact on budget together with reduced income from fees for planning, building control, land charges, lower interest rates, more difficult council tax collection and reductions on house and other asset sales. 

·        A ‘league table’ of Council Tax levels in other authorities in Kent shows Dover as third lowest.

·        Council was responding to situation by freezing recruitment, seeking to reduce establishment, advertising on-line, reducing Audit Commission fees, achieving better procurement, providing pre-planning advice and joint working with other Districts on internal audit, HR and payroll, housing, waste, NNDR and building control. 

In response to questions Cllr Ward advised:

·        senior management and lead Members meeting monthly to monitor the situation.

·        some staff had been lost but no redundancies as yet: employment stability agreement meant no vacancies could be filled unless approved by management.

·        DDC in a position to negotiate reduction in Audit Commission fees but not the case with Parish Councils.

The following representatives will be speaking about the outcomes of the Dover

Project and general health issues within the Dover area:

Jenny Knight, Assistant Director, Patient and Public Engagement

Andrew Coombe, Interim Senior Locality Lead (Dover, Deal)

Allan Stibbs – Practice Based Commissioning (PBC) Business Manager

Dover Project Update

 4.1      Andrew Coombe, Interim Senior Locality Lead (Dover, Deal):  since Dover Project in 2006 5 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) had merged and a Strategic Commissioning Plan was being developed for 2008-2013 with the underlying aim of providing world class health services comprising “better, faster care closer to home”.

4. 2      Commissioning locally needed services, based on factual input from GPs,  aimed to achieve best value from available funding and improve quality of patient care.  Dover and Deal were growth areas with areas of deprivation in Dover and significant immigration issues.

4.3       Five priority commissioning goals:

·        to break cycle of inequalities

·        to revolutionise services for older people

·        to tackle key killers: vascular disease, cancer and respiratory disease

·        to promote well-being and good mental health

·        to transform life chances for disadvantaged children

4. 4      Dover Project made some progress but circumstances had changed and now the Dover Commissioning Intentions was examining community needs:

                        Dover and Aylesham consortium approved July 2008

                        delivering more services locally in Dover

                        improving accessibility to services delivered outside Dover  

                        improving overall service performance and continuity of care

4.5       Key areas  identified:

4.6       Discussion session:

Ø      What is percentage of agency staff used and is it reviewed together with outsourcing services such as transport?  PCT is working with providers to improve all the time; supply of nurses is a problem, recruitment is partially successful but more nurses needed to be trained locally and discussions with learning institutions are on-going. Transport and access are acknowledged as important areas and Integrated Transport Group is investigating issues of transport to and car parking at hospitals.  Leaflets available and details on website. Age and location of person taken into account when making appointment and will look at sending out leaflets in post with appointments.  Instances given of where practice was failing.

Ø      Money spent on replacing Buckland Hospital has been wasted, proposals for replacement will not provide proper hospital with beds but glorified health centre, it will be on a one-way traffic system and on a floodplain. Intermediate beds in other locations will not have adequate nursing care;  patients from Dover and Deal should not have to travel to Canterbury, Ashford or Margate. Andrew Coombe replied that no intermediate beds were proposed at the moment and a review process into local needs was currently being undertaken with GPs. District Council, Environment Agency and Southern Water had all investigated the town centre site.

4.7       Allan Stibbs, Practice Based Commissioning  Business Manager, reported on the structure bringing practices together to discuss their needs and control over commissioning budget in order to buy better health services.  Some influence achieved on new Dover hospital by reflecting services needed in the community including orthopaedics, diagnostics, ophthalmology and allergy service now included in an Intention Document.  Health services in Eythorne and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Community suggestions

for a representative from Dover West Neighbourhood Forum to sit on Active

Dover (the Districts Community Sports Network). This follows the presentation

made at the Joint Dover North and Dover West meeting on 20^th November

Nomination for representative on Active Dover

Jenny Miles confirmed her willingness to represent the Forum on the District’s

Community Sports Network following Sarah Philpott’s presentation on 20

November 2008.  This was agreed by those present.