Agenda and draft minutes

The Clerk drew the Committee’s attention to the change in membership from Medway Council.

1.    The Clerk explained that as per the Committee’s Terms of Reference, the Kent and Medway NHS Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JHOSC) needed to appoint a Chair at its first meeting in each municipal year.

2.    Mr Bartlett proposed, and Cllr Wildey seconded, that Cllr McDonald be elected Chair of the Committee. There were no other nominations.

RESOLVED that Cllr McDonald be Chair of the Committee.

1.    Mr Chard proposed, and Cllr McDonald seconded, that Mr Bartlett be elected Vice-Chair of the Committee. There were no other nominations.

RESOLVED that Mr Bartlett be Vice-Chair of the Committee.

1.    Mr Bartlett declared he was a representative of East Kent councils on the Integrated Care Partnership.

2.    Mr Chard declared he was a Director of Engaging Kent. 

RESOLVED that the minutes from 6 December 2022 were correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chair.

In attendance for this item: Ben Stevens, Chief Strategy & Partnerships Officer, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, Karen Sharp, Programme Director & Project Support, East Kent Health & Care Partnership

1.    The Chair invited the representatives to provide an overview of the East Kent Transformation programme (EKTP). Mr Stevens explained that two options for acute care transformation had been shortlisted in 2017 and a capital bid of £460 million was submitted in 2021 under the second round of NHS England’s New Hospitals Programme. In May 2023 the Trust were informed that they had not been successful in their funding bid. 128 expressions of interest had been received, and the successful bids had all been identified as carrying significant risk from Reinforced Autoclave Aerated Concrete (RAAC).

2.    As there was no single source of additional capital funding the programme as described was unable to proceed. The Trust was working with partner organisations to explore further options.

3.    Pockets of capital investment in the Trust had been made over the years for specific work, for example £30 million for expansion of emergency departments at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (QEQM) and William Harvey (WHH) Hospitals. Further details were set out in the report.

4.    Mr Stevens explained that significant challenges remained around the state of the Trust’s infrastructure and its medical devices. There was no current solution due to the amount of capital funding required.

5.    The Trust’s capital funding allocation over five years was around £130 million. That funding had already been committed to a list of schemes that had been deemed most critical. In late 2021, the Trust assessed that there was a £211 million gap between the funding available over the next five years (£130 million)  and the total cost of the identified critical infrastructure work. That value was being reassessed due to the length of time passed, and it was expected to increase.

6.    Mr Stevens noted that there was a national challenge with capital funding, and that EKHUFT were not the only Trust to have aged infrastructure.

7.    The Trust were considering specific improvements that could be made, recognising that the maternity estate in particular had been mentioned in both CQC and the Kirkup reports. To replace the two existing maternity units would cost around £123 million.

8.    Mr Stevens recognised that clinical pathways had changed significantly since EKTP was first designed. In addition to looking for capital funding, the Trust was working with the Health and Care Partnership (HCP) to identify wider opportunities available both in the NHS and social care estate to deliver pathways differently which might be away from a hospital setting.

9.    Ms Sharp explained the role of the East Kent Health and Care Partnership (HCP). Their intention was to complement the work of East Kent Hospitals and look for wider opportunities to deliver clinical services, and she provided examples of work already undertaken or in development. This included how the NHS could work with district councils to ensure Section 106 funding was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.