Councillor Harvey welcomed everyone to the meeting.  No apologies had been received.

To confirm the record of the meeting of the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee held on the 9^th September 2021.

The Chair requested that agreed actions from each meeting be listed in a summary at the end of the minutes and that Item 10 b) in the previous minutes be corrected to read February 2022 and not 2021.

The remaining minutes of the meeting of the Adults and Health Scrutiny

Committee held on the 9^th September 2021 were approved as an accurate record

Actions

1.     Services at RMH – It was agreed that Rachna would re-send the list for distribution with the minutes (copy attached).

2.     Population figures – It was agreed that John Morley would check for any change in the projected population figures used in the PLP.

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this Agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

All the Councillors confirmed a non-pecuniary interest regarding Agenda Item 9 as they were registered patients with a Rutland GP.

The Chair declared a non-pecuniary interest regarding the Micare team of Adult Services as a close relative had received assistance from the team.

To receive any petitions, deputations and questions received from Members of the Public in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule 216.

The total time allowed for this item shall be 30 minutes.  Petitions, declarations and questions shall be dealt with in the order in which they are received.  Questions may also be submitted at short notice by giving a written copy to the Committee Administrator 15 minutes before the start of the meeting.

The total time allowed for questions at short notice is 15 minutes out of the total time of 30 minutes.  Any petitions, deputations and questions that have been submitted with prior formal notice will take precedence over questions submitted at short notice.  Any questions that are not considered within the time limit shall receive a written response after the meeting and be the subject of a report to the next meeting.

Jane Narey informed the Committee that questions had been received from four members of the public.  The questions had been added to the website and circulated to committee members in advance of the meeting. 

She reminded Committee Members of Procedure Rule 28, Item 4, Paragraph j, which stated that ‘Every question shall be put and answered without discussion.  No discussion nor resolution shall be permitted on any question or in reply to a question’

---oOo---

Air Cdre (RAF Retd) S M D Williamson-Noble joined the meeting at 19:08

---oOo---

Air Cdre S M D Williamson-Noble from the Rutland Health & Social Care Policy Committee joined the meeting and addressed the Committee with his question regarding the Place Led Plan.

---oOo---

Air Cdre (RAF Retd) S M D Williamson-Noble left the meeting and Mr Andrew Nebel MBE joined the meeting at 19:14

---oOo---

Mr Andrew Nebel, MBE - Co-chair of Empingham Medical Practice PPG and Councillor for Ryhall Parish Council joined the meeting and addressed the Committee with his question regarding the Place Led Plan.

---oOo---

Mr Andrew Nebel MBE left the meeting and Mrs Kathy Reynolds joined the meeting at 19:18

---oOo---

Mrs Kathy Reynolds from the Rutland Health & Social Care Policy Committee joined the meeting and addressed the Committee with her question regarding the Place Led Plan.

Jane Narey informed the Committee that Air Cdre S M D Williamson-Noble was the named representative of Mr M Ramsay Ross, who had submitted a question but was unable to attend the meeting.

---oOo---

Mrs Kathy Reynolds left the meeting and Air Cdre (RAF Retd) S M D Williamson-Noble re-joined the meeting at 19:30

---oOo---

Air Cdre S M D Williamson-Noble re-joined the meeting and addressed the Committee with the question from Mr Ramsay Ross regarding the Place Led Plan.

The Chair thanked everyone for their questions and thanked Air Cdre Williamson-Noble, Mr Nebel and Mrs Reynolds for attending the meeting.  She confirmed that a full written response to the questions would be distributed with the minutes and published on the Council’s website in due course.  She also confirmed that the draft Rutland Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the timeline would also be published with the minutes.

Councillor Harvey also confirmed that the Council continued to work in close collaboration with stakeholders such as the Health and Wellbeing Board and Rutland Healthwatch to ensure that the voice of Rutland residents was heard in such matters as community healthcare and integrated services.

To consider any questions with notice from Members received in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule No 218 and No 218A.

No questions with notice were received from Members

To consider any Notices of Motion from Members submitted in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule No 219.

No notices of motion from Members were received

To consider any matter referred to the Committee for a decision in relation to call in of a decision in accordance with Procedure Rule 206.

No call ins were received

To receive a verbal update from John Morley, Strategic Director – Adults and Health regarding the post Covid support given by Adult Social Care, carers and care homes including an update on service pressures, capacity and the impact upon services from the new care homes within Rutland.

A verbal update was received from John Morley, Strategic Director for Adults and Health and a short presentation from his senior management team (copy attached). During the discussion, the following points were noted:

·       John Morley thanked his team for all their hard work during the pandemic and stated how proud he was of all of them. He reminded attendees that the pandemic was not over and that many staff and services continued to work long hours with heavy workloads.

·       Department of Health and Social Care specific funding workstreams had been confirmed until March 2022 but came with very tight terms and conditions.

·       Two new care homes had opened in Rutland, which increased the number of care home beds by 140, an increase of 44%.  This has meant additional work for Adult Services, a bigger demand for care home staff and an increase in the number of vacancies within care homes.

·       Rutland now has enough care home beds to cover the county until 2043 assuming the same rate of demand, but this might entail an increase in the number of self-funders going into the care homes which the Local Authority might have to support in the long term; the cost of an extra three or four self-funders moving to Local Authority support could be an extra £100k per year.

·       During the pandemic, the housing service has seen an increase in the number of homeless people, domestic abuse cases and housing applications.  All were dealt with while the team transferred to a new electronic system.

·       Adults Social Care had seen safeguarding alerts rise by 41% from residential and care homes during the pandemic and this was expected to rise as the new care homes became fully occupied.

·       A new 7-days a week personalised support service for adults with a learning disability and/or autism has been established for the vulnerable adults within the community, who had previously attended the Brightways day opportunity service.

·       The Rise team had made over 1500 phone calls to those classed as vulnerable by their GP and manned the 24/7 emergency phone line which resulted Adult Services dealing with an additional 4-6 cases per month.

·       Community Care Services received approximately 76 cases a month from hospital discharge and still managed to ensure that 100% of all cases were assessed within two days of discharge.  The team also made 105 face-to-face visits resulting from track and trace alerts. 

·       The RISE team made 117 phone calls encouraging people to receive the Covid vaccination, made 61 welfare calls and took on between 25-50 new cases each month.  This resulted in an average 100 cases a month being dealt with by the Rise team. The Rise team also held 50 multi-disciplinary team meetings each month with the care homes to ensure that all staff and residents were safe.

·       There was and continues to be an increasing number of people contacting the Rise service and local food bank for assistance, either due to self-isolation or a reduction in income.

·       The national average for people  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To receive a joint presentation from the Clinical Commissioning Groups, Oakham Medical Practice, Lakeside Health Care Stamford and the Primary Care Network.  The presentation will include how the surgeries are currently operating and the progress made regarding the improvement plans.

A joint presentation was received from Rachna Vyas and Laura Norton from the Clinical Commissioning Groups, Dr Hilary Fox from the Primary Care Network and Dr Ryszard Bietzk and Dr Lucy Pearson from Oakham Medical Practice (copy attached).  During the discussion, the following points were noted:

·       Jane Narey confirmed that nobody was in attendance from Lakeside Health Care Stamford even though they had been formally requested to attend.  The Chair reported that she and the Committee were deeply disappointed by Lakeside Health Care’s refusal to attend a Scrutiny Committee meeting yet again.  The Chair has discussed this issue with the Monitoring Officer and has agreed that a formal letter would be sent to Lakeside Health Care Stamford on Monday, 29^th November 2021 to issue a Section 28 notification.

·       The Chair also reported that no representative was in attendance from Lincolnshire CCG but this was due to a serious health incident and apologies were accepted by the Chair.

·       Dr Pearson confirmed that the Same Day Team were trained to triage callers to allocate them to the most appropriate medical person and/or service and that blood tests could be booked 3 months in advance for those patients that required regular blood tests. All GPs could book a repeat appointment for a patient if they needed to have a follow-up appointment either face-to-face or telephone. 

·       She also informed the Committee that patients who did not turn up for their appointment, equated to one GP working 10hrs/day for six months with no breaks or holidays.  Laura Norton confirmed that she would discuss with the CCG about System One deleting appointments that have not been confirmed by the patient.

ACTION: Laura Norton

·       Councillor Waller stated that patients did not know what medical service they needed or what services the medical centre offered apart from that of a GP and that better communication was needed by GP services to educate the public on what services were available, how these services could be accessed and what other medical professionals e.g. physiotherapist, pharmacist etc were qualified to deal with them.  Laura Norton confirmed that this was a national issue and not just a Rutland issue but that an action plan was being drafted regarding better communication and accessibility.

·       Councillor Powell stated that booking an online appointment was confusing i.e. what classified as a ‘long condition’, what services were offered in a ‘nurse appointment’ rather than a ‘GP appointment’ etc. Dr Pearson stated that processes were tested by the patient group and were continuously reviewed.

·       Councillor Cross asked if the service could have extra staff answering phones?  Dr Pearson confirmed that all medical centre staff were allocated to their specific areas and that there were no resources to employ extra trained/qualified staff.  Dr Peason confirmed that GP services had changed due to the pandemic but needed to continue to change to provide services in the future. 

·       Dr Pearson confirmed that Oakham Medical Centre was fully staffed following months of determined recruitment.

·       Dr Underwood queried why the door at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

To consider the current Forward Plan and identify any relevant items for inclusion in the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee Annual Work Plan, or to request further information.

The Forward Plan is available on the website at:

https://rutlandcounty.moderngov.co.uk/mgListPlans.aspx?RPId=133&RD=0

The Forward Plan and Annual Work Plan were reviewed.  During the discussion, the following points were noted:

·       It was agreed that an update regarding dentistry figures should be given at the meeting in April.

·       Councillor Harvey proposed an additional meeting of the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee be held to discuss the draft Rutland Health and Wellbeing Strategy (Place Led Plan).  This was seconded by Councillor Waller and was unanimously approved.

·       It was agreed that members of the Children’s and Young People Scrutiny Committee be invited to attend this additional meeting so that they may partake of the discussions.

To receive any other items of urgent business which have been previously notified to the person presiding.

None

Wednesday, 26^th January 2022 at 7 pm

This will be a joint meeting with the Children & Young People Scrutiny Committee with only 1 item on the agenda: The Budget for 2022/23

An additional meeting of the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee would be held via Zoom on Thursday, 9^th December 2021 at 7 p.m.