Report of the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG)
Minutes:
The Accountable Officer Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent 6 CCGs provided a report and presentation to outline the Transforming Urgent and Emergency Care programme (UEC) and the engagement plan. The Chair of UEC Board and Clinical Lead UEC Transformation Programme were in attendance to respond to members questions.
The objectives of the programme were to simplify access to urgent and emergency care, to ensure patients were directed and treated in the most appropriate care setting and to priorities the development of pathways for people who use emergency services where alternative services may provide a better outcome and experience.
Members raised matters of concern relating to current pressures, UEC arrangements, ambulance waiting times at hospitals, patient experiences and joined up processes. Committee noted the following comments and response to Members questions:
• Urgent Treatment Centres (UTC) would be a major element of the consultation process to determine the most effective and productive location and to develop a different community offer.
• A fundamental part of process was to provide consistency of services across the County to be able to direct patients to be seen quickly and where possible direct them away from A&E. There was also opportunity for the 111 offer to direct people to the right part of the service and a trial 111 kiosk was currently in A&E.
• NHS and WMAS were working together to resolve handover issues and waiting times outside hospitals. The Community Rapid Intervention Service CRIS was working well and had reduced numbers of patients being transported to hospital.
• The engagement process was a pre-consultation process to be followed by a 3 month consultation process which would focus on pathways of care in communities, an urgent care community offer and lessons learned through the pandemic.
• The consultation process would be extensive, journey times, travel times and other data would be taken into account, and temporary changes taken in the pandemic were not permanent, no decision would be made permanent until the consultation was complete.
• Face to face engagement was planned with a range of community groups and would link closely with Healthwatch as assurance partners. All feedback, demographics and pathways across various localities in Staffordshire would be evaluated and considered in the consultation process to develop a clear, accessible and efficient community offer and pathway of care, where residents and clinicians could understand what was available, where and how to access the system.
• The system had to be deliverable and within resources available taking all consultation feedback into account.
The Chairman summarised that the transformation engagement process was an opportunity to engage with the public and partners and to shape the shared vision for the future services in Urgent and Emergency Care to improve services and patient experience.
The Chairman encouraged District and Borough Councillors to share the consultation widely to ensure District, Borough and Parish residents voices were heard.
Resolved:
1.That the Committee noted the engagement process.
2.That the consultation feedback be considered by the Committee at a future meeting.
Supporting documents: