Agenda and minutes

Geoffrey Smith OBE, Healthwatch Representative

Sue Noyes, Acting Chief Executive, LPT

Satheesh Kumar, Medical Director, LPT

Cathy Ellis, Deputy Chair, LPT

Toby Sanders, Managing Director, West Leicestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

Dr Graham Johnson, East Leicestershire and Rutland CCG

Tim Sacks, Chief Operating Officer, East Leicestershire and Rutland CCG

The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 35.

The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 7(3) and 7(5).

There were no urgent items for consideration.

The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to declare any interest in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting.

Dr T Eynon CC declared a personal interest in the report on the Bradgate Mental Health Unit (minute 21 refers) as a salaried GP with a special interest in mental health.

There were no declarations of the party whip.

The Committee considered a report from the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) and a report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), both of which set out the current issues and challenges affecting LPT with specific reference to the CQC visit to the Bradgate Mental Health Unit in July 2013.  A copy of the reports, marked ‘Agenda Item 7a’ and ‘Agenda Item 7b’ is filed with these minutes.

The Committee also considered a supplementary report from LPT which described the psychology input for the Bradgate Unit, a copy of which is filed with these minutes.

Healthwatch had submitted written comments on this item, a copy of which is filed with these minutes.

The Chairman welcomed the following NHS representatives to the meeting:-

Sue Noyes, Acting Chief Executive, LPT

Satheesh Kumar, Medical Director, LPT

Cathy Ellis, Deputy Chair, LPT

Toby Sanders, Managing Director, West Leicestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

Dr Graham Johnson, East Leicestershire and Rutland CCG

Tim Sacks, Chief Operating Officer, East Leicestershire and Rutland CCG

The Acting Chief Executive of LPT reported that CQC had made a follow up visit to the Bradgate Unit on Monday 9 September.  At that visit, CQC had seen some improvements but had requested more information and indicated that a further visit was needed before they could reach a robust judgement on whether LPT had met the requirements of the warning notices issued in July.

The Acting Chief Executive also reported that an inpatient at the Bradgate Unit had committed suicide during August.  An independent review into the suicide had been commissioned by LPT.

The Managing Director of West Leicestershire CCG reported that the CCGs had been aware of the challenges facing LPT.  However, the CQC inspection had highlighted issues where changes which the CCGs thought had been implemented had not been done with consistency.  This had led to a different approach to performance management of LPT.

The role of the CCGs during August had been to move the regulation of LPT by the Trust Development Authority, CQC, CCGs and NHS England Area Team into a single process so that there was clarity and consistency on outstanding issues and LPT were not overburdened with inspection.  This work had achieved a measure of success.  The proposal for a single quality improvement programme for LPT had been submitted to the regional Quality Surveillance Group on 19^th August, this had been followed up by a risk summit on 29^th August and a further meeting, including Healthwatch and Adult Social Care, to agree terms of reference or a Quality Improvement Assessment Group which would meet fortnightly and support LPT, assess and oversee implementation of the changes and hold LPT to account for delivery.

Arising from discussion the following points were raised:-

(i)      The open and transparent approach taken by LPT and its commissioners was welcomed.  However, the Committee shared the concerns of Healthwatch that the new plan would not deliver the required improvements in care and security and sought assurance from LPT on this matter.  The Committee was advised that the approach taken to respond to CQCs concerns was different from previous action plans because LPT was focussed on what success should look like and whether patients were seeing a difference.  The improvement plan was linked to the new CQC inspection regime as it was felt that this would help to deliver high quality care.

(ii)     The Committee was advised that changes at the Bradgate Unit were focussed on how staff worked and related to each other.  Nursing leadership had been improved by the appointment of two senior matrons, whose role included inspecting patient notes and inputting  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

The next meeting of the Committee is scheduled to take place on 27 November 2013 at 2.00pm

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Wednesday 27 November at 2.00pm.