This summary has been produced following the latest Council of Governors meeting that was held in public on 15th January 2020. We do hope that you find the content useful.
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Graham Armitage, Interim Executive Lead for Workforce has been in post since mid-November focussing on staff sickness, recruitment and retention, Agency spend reduction and, as required, reshaping the Workforce service.
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Trust planning was effective over the Christmas / New Year period in responding to winter pressures. January so far has been very challenging, but staff are coping with the high levels of demand, and there has been a focus on a multi-agency discharge event all this week. The number of patients being admitted with potentially life-threatening conditions is higher, leading to increased lengths of stay in hospital.
Following on from CQC’s inspection in September / October the JPUH has received its fourth overall rating of GOOD, which included an overall rating of Outstanding for the “responsive” category. This is a fantastic achievement so congratulations to everyone “#Proud of the Paget”
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Focussing on closer working and enhancing services for patients, Board members from the Queen Elizabeth, Norfolk & Norwich and James Paget Hospitals attended a joint meeting in November and a sub group has been formed to progress the outcomes from that event.
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Following on from the recent changes to pensions and tax rules it has been confirmed that the national solution for clinicians is being implemented here for 2019 / 20.
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The JPUH Trust Charity will be re-launched in mid-February and will be more visible. Events will be publicised more effectively and monies raised will help the Trust to provide additional services that NHS provision doesn’t allow to help improve the care, health and safety of patients.
As a requirement of NHS England/NHS Improvement the 10, seven-day services standards have been considered in detail with a self-assessment submitted on the four priority standards.
A detailed report has been done on hospital infection control with good practice in place and evidence of a high standard of cleaning. Concerns remain on the number of surgical site infections which is being looked at as a priority.
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E-job planning and medical rostering has been successfully implemented, resulting in better utilisation of staff, ensuring the right people are in the right place at the right time.
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Transformation savings have been made but it has been a massive challenge financially in trying to achieve the financial plan. There is an extreme risk that the end of year target will not be met.
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The Trust achieved 70% (21) of its measurable indicators in November 2019. Despite undertaking various initiatives to help cope with the high demand, performance in A&E continues to deteriorate with 79% of patients being treated in less than four hours against a 95% target. 30 and 60-minute ambulance handover breaches also continue to increase. There has been some improvement in the cancer targets although breast symptoms urgent referral to treatment was affected by issues with imaging capacity (which has now stabilised) so only achieved 63% against a 93% target. Despite ongoing efforts to optimise theatre performance, only 80% of patients achieved the 18 week Referral to Treatment (RTT) against a target of 92%.
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The valuation of JPUH Trust buildings remains an ongoing issue and is yet to be fully resolved with the external auditors.
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An external review of cyber security is to be put in place.
If you have any questions, would like clarification on any of the items covered, or have any other matters that you would like to raise please do not hesitate to contact us. You can do this via the Governors’ email which is governors@jpaget.nhs.uk. We would welcome your feedback and look forward to hearing from you.