Agenda item

To receive and consider the attached report of the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development

The Board considered a report of the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development providing:

• Details on the transitional arrangements for three key areas; Corporate Performance; Quality and Safety for the three Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in Leeds which were due to take up their duties in April 2012, arising out of the restructure of the NHS; and,
• the most recent performance scorecard, dated September 2012, for the city as a whole and for the three Leeds CCGs – which was appended to the report.

The following representatives attended the meeting to present the report and respond to Members’ questions and comments:

• Nigel Gray (Chief Officer Designate) – NHS Leeds North Clinical Commissioning Group
• Graham Brown (Performance Manager) – NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds

Members were informed that with the move from Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to CCGs, the reporting of performance would be routed to CCGs, rather than the PCT Cluster Board.  To facilitate this, the CCGs had formed sub-committees of the PCT Cluster Board.

In respect of the PCTs, Nigel Gray assured Members that whilst staff had been made redundant as part of the changes, there would be sufficient staff to carry through the transitional functions.  In terms of the CCG arrangements, Nigel Gray advised that further information could be provided in a separate session if the Board wished.

The Board then considered the detailed performance information which had been circulated as a supplementary document.

The main areas of discussion related to:

• Increasing Access to Psychological Treatment, which citywide was shown as being below threshold;
• levels for MRSA and other Heath Care Aquired Infections (HCAIs) and the measures being taken to avoid/ reduce the occurance, with concerns raised about the performance of Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust;
• more detail around urgent and emergency ambulance journeys, with exception reports requested to enable the Board to understand areas where there may be problems in meeting the standards and targets;
• Government changes to the present performance regimes with data for cancer waits, A&E 4 hours waits and 18 week waits from referral to treatment not being required to be reported on.  On this the Board welcomed Graham Brown’s assurances that this data would continue to be provided and considerdd by local CCGs, even where there was no statutory requirement to do so.

RESOLVED -  

a)  To note the information presented in the NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds Cluster Board, including the amended information on the transitional performance monitoring and assurance processes circulated at the meeting.

b)  That consideration be given to setting up a Working Group of the Scrutiny Board (Health and Wellbeing and Adult Social Care) to consider the arrangements around the formal implementation of the three CCGs in Leeds, from April 2013.

c)  That narrative information be provided in a future report to identify the root causes of some of the delays around urgent and emergency ambulance journeys.

During consideration of this matter, Councillors Murray, Urry and Walker left the meeting