Presentation and questions and answer session.
Minutes:
Leader of the Council Councillor Jane Scott and Corporate Director, Maggie Rae presented information on the Wiltshire Better Care Plan and showed a DVD. Also in attendance to answer questions were:
Peter Jenkins, Medical Advisor to CCG - Salisbury Foundation Trust
Michelle Bacon, Great Western Hospital, Community Nursing
Dr Chet Sheth, Local GP
Following the presentation questions and comments were received, these included:
· Was the independent care sector included in the Plan? Answer: Yes.
· Within the independent care sector, elderly people want to receive care in their own homes. There are issues in this area; people are not receiving continuity of care. Would this be addresses in the Plan? Answer: There was far more work if the people at the end of the chain were not valued. We need to spend more time with carers and value them. We aim to set up an academy, as Wiltshire has some of the best doctors and health care professionals in the country.
There would be no zero hour’s contracts. There was good intelligence that there would be many army wives that would want to work in the industry; we would try and fix the problems in the independent care sector by working with those people.
· After people have been into hospital to receive treatment, the hospital want a quick turnaround, so send them out to social care. Funding needs to go through the hospitals. Answer: 70% of people in Wiltshire have to pay for their own care. The decision of Cllr Scott and the Health and Wellbeing Board was that better community services were needed in Wiltshire. When people go home from hospital, if health care was needed, then they would receive it. It was all about how we can work together to change the system.
· The out of hour’s telephone service was completely inadequate; users of the service were asked repetitive questions by people reading from a script. Would this service be included in the plan? Answer: At the last Health and Wellbeing Board, there was a clear view that the 111 system was not fit for purpose. If the Board were to deal with the out of hour’s service then the providers would need to be a key partner of the Board. The tender for the service would be up for renewal shortly. This may be dealt with by having a single record about each patient, which they would have access to.
· Would disabled younger people be included in the plan? Answer: The Board was keen for young disabled people to be included in the plan, however central Government was only interested in including frail and elderly at this stage. Wiltshire was very clear that they wanted to include all in need of health and social care.
· How many people waiting for hospital discharge were still waiting for a better care plan, before they could get home? Answer: There was one person waiting for a care package at present.
· In the past we have moved to centralise, now we are decentralising again, what was different now? Answer: This was not about joint commissioning, it was about integrating teams, now was the time to do this.
· It was known that more prevention was needed, but funding preventative care whilst still funding from the problems in the past means double funding. Answer: We are about to get Health Visitors back into the Council, this would be absolutely vital. We will use all of the opportunities we have got to remove duplication and focus resources.
· How long was it acceptable for a person to stay in hospital for after they were fit for release, whilst waiting for a care home to come and assess them? Answer: The Council controlled the social workers which carried out assessments of patients, however each individual care home also sends someone in to make an assessment, the Council did not control these care homes.