Agenda item

Sarah Dugan updated the Board on the public engagement. To date there had been 120 events held and 897 responses. The public supported the general direction of STP and recognised that they had a responsibility for their own health but were asking to be pointed in the direction of trusted sources of information. There was a strong preference for accessing services through GP surgeries and for care to be delivered closer to home.  Concerns were raised about the reduction in the numbers of community beds, the use of technology and transport; further work would be done in those areas.

An STP delivery Board had been set up to drive delivery of the plan and they reported to the Programme Board as required.

The focus was still on four main themes of

1.     Back office and infrastructure

2.     Prevention and supporting self-care

3.     Home, not hospital; a different modal of care

4.     Reviewing how and when specialist services were used

It was felt that further work was needed on how the golden threads of prevention, mental health and well-being, and children and young people fitted in with the work-streams.

The engagement would run until the end of February and once the responses had been analysed the document would be refreshed and presented to the Health and Well-being Boards, perhaps at a joint Herefordshire and Worcestershire meeting.

During the discussion various points were made:

·       A hopper bus service between Worcestershire Royal and the Alexandra hospital had begun on 6 February and over 5 days had taken 192 people between the hospitals,

·       More work was being done on the analysis of community beds, checking whether the assumptions made about the length of stays were accurate. Different models were run using a 14 day stay for an aspirational plan and 20 days in the realistic plan. Work was being carried out to see how community and acute hospital services would need to be organised differently to enable the aspirational model to be achieved. Social care demands as well as hospital demands were being considered during the bed modelling exercise. Demand management would be important in achieving the aspirational targets. The reduction in community beds could only happen once community services were running at optimal capacity and efficiency,

·       Healthwatch felt that more involvement was needed from patients, users and carers and more details regarding finances were required

·       Transport between Evesham and Bromsgrove was an issue as there were no direct bus services

·       Stroke services were being kept under review

·       The Prevention Board had met and would oversee the programmes of digital inclusion, making every contact count, social prescribing and lifestyle programme change. The Board would also ensure that prevention remained at the heart of the work-streams being looked at in the STP

·       The current engagement was to ensure that the STP was moving in generally the right direction. More detailed work and specific consultation would be needed later in the process.

RESOLVED that the Health and Well-being Board noted the progress on the development of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan and in particular noted the public engagement work.