Home > Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Town Hall, Katharine Street, Croydon CR0 1NX. View directions

Contact: Simon Trevaskis
02087266000  Email: simon.trevaskiss@croydon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

15/20

Disclosure of Interests

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

 

Minutes:

There were no disclosures of interest made at the meeting.

16/20

Urgent Business (if any)

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

 

Minutes:

The Chair advised the Sub-Committee that it had been agreed to add one urgent item of business to the agenda for the meeting, namely the Croydon Health Service NHS Trust Quality Account for 2019-20.

17/20

Urgent Item: Croydon Health Service - Quality Accounts 2019-20 pdf icon PDF 96 KB

The Sub-Committee is asked to:-

1.         Receive and note the Croydon Health Service Quality Accounts 2019-20.

2.         Agree that any comments submitted with be agreed informally by the Chair in consultation with the Sub-Committee.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee received a report from the Croydon Health Service NHS Trust (CHS) setting out a draft of their Quality Account for 2019-20. It was noted that Quality Accounts were submitted to the Sub-Committee on an annual basis to allow for feedback prior to the final version being published..

The Chair highlighted to the Sub-Committee that the Quality Account had only been received on the day prior to the meeting, but as the deadline for the submission of feedback was 21 October and therefore before the next meeting of the Sub-Committee (10 November 2020) it had been agreed to include the report on the agenda as an urgent item. 

Given that the report had only been circulated on the morning of the meeting it was agreed that there was insufficient time for Members to digest the information provided and as such it was agreed that receipt of the report would be noted at the meeting. It would then be left in the hands of the Chair, in consultation with the other members of the Sub-Committee, to finalise any comments for submission.

RESOLVED: The Sub-Committee resolved to:-

1.       Receive and note the Croydon Health Service NHS Trust Quality Account 2019-20

2.       Agree that any comments submitted to Croydon Health Service NHS Trust would be agreed informally by the Chair in consultation with the other members of the Sub-Committee.

(Note: At the meeting the Sub-Committee agreed to change the running order of the agenda to take the Covid-19/Winter Preparedness item before the Chair’s Update on the South West London & Surrey JHSC Sub-Committee – Improving Healthcare Together item. The minutes are presented in the original running order to correspond with the published agenda.)

18/20

Chair's Update on the South West London & Surrey JHSC Sub-Committee - Improving Healthcare Together 2020 - 2030 pdf icon PDF 133 KB

The Sub-Committee is asked to review the information provided, along with an update given by the Chair at the meeting, with a view to reaching a conclusion as to whether any further action is necessary.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair of the Sub-Committee, Councillor Sean Fitzsimons provided an update on the work of the South West London & Surrey Joint Health Scrutiny Committee’s Sub-Committee that had been set up to scrutinise the Improving Healthcare Together plan (IHT).

It was advised that the three NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (Surrey Downs, Sutton & Merton) overseeing the implementation of the plan had recently confirmed Sutton as the preferred location for a new emergency care hospital, which would result in the current facilities at the St Helier and Epsom hospitals being reduced.

The Chair highlighted that it had originally been expected that the JHSC Sub-Committee would reach a consensus on how to respond to the IHT, but this had not been the case. This meant that it was now within the remit of the individual boroughs to decide how they wished to respond. 

Given the potential impact of this decision on healthcare provision in their borough the London Borough of Merton had decided to refer the decision to the Secretary of State for Health for review. A copy of the Merton referral had been appended to the report for the information of the Sub-Committee. At this stage none of the other boroughs (Kingston, Sutton & Wandsworth) or Surrey County Council had confirmed how they would be responding. The Sub-Committee was asked to consider how it wished to respond on behalf of Croydon.

From the discussion of the Sub-Committee it was clear that Member welcomed the additional investment in hospital infrastructure from the Government, particularly as many years of uncertainty over the future of the St Helier hospital had resulted in a detrimental lack of investment in site.

However, there was also support for the referral made to the Secretary of State for Health by the London of Borough of Merton, with concern noted about potential impact upon the poorest families in Merton and North Sutton due to poor public transport links to the identified site in Sutton.

Concern was also raised about the consultation process as it had identified the Sutton site as the preferred option and did not include an option for investing in both the Epsom and St Helier hospital sites, which may have influenced any responses given. It was also highlighted that as the consultation had been run during the Covid-19 pandemic this might have limited the number of responses received.

At the end of the discussion the Sub-Committee reached the conclusion that although there was not grounds for Croydon to make its own referral to the Secretary of State for Health, it recognised there was a case for Merton and other boroughs more directly affected to do so. As such it was agreed to endorse the referral made by Merton, with the response from the Secretary of State keenly awaited.

It was also agreed that the Chair would explore the potential for a joint endorsement for the Merton referral from the JHSC Sub-Committee when it next met in October. 

Conclusions

Following discussion of this item the Sub-Committee reached the following conclusions:-  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18/20

19/20

Croydon: COVID-19 & Winter Preparedness pdf icon PDF 249 KB

The Sub-Committee is asked to review the information provided in this report and at the meeting, with a view to forming conclusions and recommendations.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee received an update on the preparedness of local health and social care services to cope in the event of a second wave of covid-19, which may be particularly challenging with winter approaching.. A presentation was delivered to the Sub-Committee by the following:-

·         Rachel Flowers – Director of Public Health (Croydon Council)

·         Matthew Kershaw – Chief Executive and Place Based Lead for Health (Croydon Health Service NHS Trust & CroydonCommittee of the South West London Clinical Commissioning Group)

·         Guy Van Dichele – Executive Director for Health, Wellbeing & Adults (Croydon Council)

A copy of the presentation can be found on the Council’s website on the following link –

https://democracy.croydon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=168&MId=2160&Ver=4

During the course of the presentation the following was noted:-

·         The current situation regarding covid-19 was moving at a pace although at present numbers in Croydon remained low. The number of covid-19 infections was increasing on a daily basis and the Prime Minister was due to given a national update later that evening on new guidance aimed at minimising the impact of any second wave. 

·         The current priorities were to keep children at school, protect the economy and ensure vulnerable people remained protected from the risk of infection.

·         It was reiterated that the infection rate would only decrease if everybody was following the guidance provided by the Government.

·         It was highlighted that response in Croydon has required a system wide approach across health and social care to manage the increased demand. For example the Living Independently For Everyone team had seen a fourfold increase in referrals during the pandemic, which had been managed through joint working.

·         The Integrated Community Networks were also bringing together services with a focus on prevention and delivering proactive care.

·         GPs across the borough had provided an essential front door to health services, with telephone triage, face to face appointments and home visits.

·         Innovations such as digital outpatient appointments and both video and phone GP appointments had been essential in allowing services to continue during the pandemic.

·         Croydon University Hospital was one of five London sites that would be piloting NHS 111 First, starting from 23 September. This system would allow people to book before attending A&E, which could improve waiting times and lower the risk of hospital acquired infections.

·         The Croydon Elective Centre had been opened at the hospital. It was intended that this would increase the capacity for elective surgery by providing a separate, covid free entrance to the hospital and dedicated theatre and ward space. At present the level of elective surgery was at 83% of normal business as usual with plans in place to increase this.

·         Thanks was given to the voluntary sector which had provided vital support to the vulnerable throughout the pandemic.

·         There had been 15,000 vulnerable residents shielding in Croydon, many of whom had not previously been known to the Council. Support had been provided in a range of different ways including assistance with shopping and pharmacy support.

·         The Council was working with Croydon Voluntary Action  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19/20

20/20

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

 

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

 

Minutes:

This motion was not required.