Agenda item

To receive a verbal update from the Leader and Cabinet Member for Traded Services and Health Reform, the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Commissioning and Public Health and the Director of Public Health.

1.            The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Commissioning and Public Health,  Mr P J Oakford, gave a verbal update on the followingissues:

Infant Feeding – a group of Kent mothers had recently submitted a petition of 4,931 signatures about breastfeeding support services and had met the Leader to discuss this.  In line with the County Council’s petition scheme, the petition would be the subject of a debate at this committee’s next meeting on 24 January 2018 and would form part of the public consultation on this subject.

Kent Health and Wellbeing Board – work was ongoing to establish a joint Kent and Medway Health and Wellbeing Board.  The terms of reference of the new joint board were currently being finalised and would be ratified by both councils, and the new board would start work in April 2018. Glenn Douglas, Chairman of the Sustainability Transformation Partnership, had addressed the most recent meeting of the Kent Health and Wellbeing Board and the establishment of the new joint board had been welcomed.  The present Kent Health and Wellbeing Board would continue to exist and would meet briefly once a year to undertake formal procedural tasks, with all other business being considered by the new joint board. 

2.            The Leader and Cabinet Member for Traded Services and Health Reform, Mr P B Carter, CBE, commented that, as it continued to establish its workload, the committee needed to include more health reform issues on its agenda. He then gave a verbal update on the following issues:

Sustainability Transformation Plan (STP) update – Mr Oakford and Mr Carter both served on the Sustainability TransformationProgramme Board, which was pursuing the priorities of hospital care, local care, prevention and public health issues, with the former taking up much STP time. Regarding hospital care, Mr Carter said he had been surprised by the short notice given of a public consultation on a reconfiguration of East Kent hospitals’ A&E services, which would start on 4 December. He suggested that population modelling, to identify service need in East Kent, should extend as far as Swale and Faversham.  He outlined the response to the consultation which the County Council would make by the closing date of 8 December; the need for a new solution, with A&E services added to the Chaucer Hospital, QEQM retaining its current A&E services, but no new hospital being built at Canterbury. Regarding local care, he said the County Council should seek new investment of £40m-70m to fund a full range of local care services to keep people out of hospital.  It was well known that, for every additional £1 spent on local care, it was possible to save £3 - 4 on the provision of hospital care. There was a proposal that there be eight pilot local care schemes, but he expressed an opinion that it would be better instead to have four well-targeted pilots. He suggested that an item on this area of work be added to the committee’s January agenda to ask Anu Singh, Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Health, to set out her vision of how social care and public health could best link to local care, and what an ideal model of local care would look like.    

3.            Mr Carter then responded to comments and questions from the committee, including the following:-

a)    good progress had been made in promoting and supporting training for medical staff in the Canterbury area, which was vitally important, and a bid for a medical school in Kent would further help this. The medical school was supported by Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Kent at Canterbury and could possibly have a second campus in Medway. What was important was that good staff be recruited, properly deployed and retained; and

b)    reference was made to the lessons which could be learned from past experience of new hospital building and service reconfiguration  in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells.  Good links between hospital services and community services would address delayed transfers of care.  One of the main challenges of implementing the STP was how to deliver new, local services on the ground.  Mr Carter responded that his view was that enhancing service delivery at existing Canterbury hospitals was a better use of funding in the long term than the construction of a new hospital, and the County Council should make a good business case for this option.    

4.            During discussion of this item, Mr Thomas declared that he was a Canterbury City Councillor serving on the Planning committee.  He did not take any part in the discussion of the possibility of a new hospital site in Canterbury.

5.            The Director of Public Health,  Mr A Scott-Clark, then gave a verbal update on the following issues:

Kent Medical School – to what had already been said about this, Mr Scott-Clark added that a Kent medical school could helpfully relate to a ‘parent’ medical school at Brighton and confirmed that his team would host medical trainees to give them a grounding in public health issues.    

Sustainability Transformation Plan update: Public Health Input– Mr Scott-Clark had met with the Director of Public Health at Medway Council to discuss public health work and how best to work together and avoid duplication of work streams, particularly around prevention.

Public Health Observatory – work was underway with Carnall Farrar on a ‘case for change’, to seek to enhance mental health work and improve outcomes for cancer patients via a holistic approach, including early diagnosis and faster treatment. 

Clinical Strategy for Kent and Medway - both Directors of Public Health served together on a clinical board and were working together to develop a clinical strategy for Kent and Medway, to seek the best outcomes for the population. Key areas of work included mental health, workplace stress and lifestyle changes, joining up digital work streams and tackling the challenges around local care and hospital care. In response to a comment, he emphasised the importance that mental health issues had among current work streams and the need to view mental and physical health as being of equal importance.

6.            It was RESOLVED that the verbal updates be noted, with thanks.