Briefing Sheet following Council of Governors Meeting – March 2021
This summary has been produced following the latest Council of Governors meeting that was held virtually, in public on 5th May 2021. All the papers and a recording of the meeting are available on the Trust website. We do hope that you find the content useful.
• Elective surgery recovery has re-started with the focus on minimising harm to patients and treating in order of the most need. People on the waiting list are being contacted to review their clinical situation due to the amount of time they have been waiting because of the pandemic.
• Visiting patients in hospital is being reviewed on a regular basis with the one visitor per day for one hour being increased to two visitors. Contact via IPads continues.
• The vaccination programme continues to go well with a new vaccination centre opening in Market Gates, Great Yarmouth alongside the Louise Hamilton Centre. Over 30,000 vaccinations have been given from these two sites.
• After developing this with family members, the maternity team has launched “Kobi’s Promise”to provide the opportunity for a family to challenge at any stage
• Much emphasis is on staff engagement through the “Putting You First” programme which included listening events, health and wellbeing support sessions and an e-Paget’s People conversation during April. Staff and management are working together to formulate actions to make the hospital the best place for people to work. These actions, which will include addressing those issues highlighted in the national Staff Survey, will be considered and approved at the Board.
• There has been a good staff response to the JPUH 10,000 Miles Active Challenge as part of the events during April.
• The Chair, Anna Davidson, has participated in many virtual meetings including the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System Partnership Board. Anna also chaired the Continuity of Carer meeting held with representatives from the other two acute hospitals in Norfolk and opened discussions with East Coast Community Health re local partnership services.
• Successful interviews recruited consultants in anaesthetics x 2, ophthalmology and surgery.
• New processes are being considered for quality impact assessments (previously called clinical quality risk assessments) to check the impact of any service / staffing changesproposed.
• A Patient Experience and Engagement Strategy is being developed, as is a Clinical Strategy.
• Digital developments have been introduced supporting both staff and efficiency.
• A Strategic Projects Committee was set up in January to ensure a robust programme / project processes and risks managed for three major projects including a new build Diagnostic and Assessment Centre (by 2023), the New Hospital Programme and Electronic Patient Recordacross three acute sites, both due in 2030. The first New Hospital Programme engagement events have recently taken place attended by stakeholders from various organisations. Plans are being developed to ensure engagement with our staff, our patients and the public for this long term project
• A national clinical standards review is looking at new clinical targets including changes to the current 4 hour waiting time in A&E.
• Concerns raised around budget planning for 2021/2022 which also needs to co-ordinate with the Integrated Care System planning.
• Annual accounts for 2020/2021 are being drafted with a surplus still being predicted. Delivery of the capital programme is on track.
• Both the external and internal audit plans for 2021/2022 are in place.
• No concerns in relation to the Local Counter Fraud Service with the 2021/2022 plan in place.
• Changes to the overseas visitor processes are being rolled out with the results being monitored.
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 any feedback and look forward to hearing from you.