Agenda item

The Committee is invited to comment on the quality accounts submitted by the two hospital trusts, the RUH in Bath and Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust.  A formal response will be completed by the Chair and Vice Chair by 14 June 2024.

The Chairman reported that a Quality Account is a published report about the quality of services and improvements offered by an NHS healthcare provider.

Health Select Committees and other stakeholder bodies are asked to consider and respond to the quality accounts of health providers in their area.  The response deadline for the two hospital accounts is the end of this week and input was welcomed from the committee.

Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust

The Committee noted that there was a discrepancy about the number of members of staff at the RUH, with page 88 of the agenda pack stating that there were 6442 and later in the report the figure is 8142 and was this perhaps a vacancy gap, to what extent are they managing the budget to ensure that there is a quality of service to the public with those possible vacancies in play to be able to provide an effective service?

The Committee asked how the Quality Account priorities are arrived at and if they differ each year.

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust

A Committee member commented felt that the production of the document was an exercise to prove that the Department for Health had taken on areas of concern, reviewed their policies, and completed training but he felt that it was short on quality outcomes and data, asking what the value is gained from the quality accounts and what value the committee can add to them.  It was suggested that this could be the Committee’s standard response to all quality accounts and that this would be discussed further with the Senior Scrutiny Officer outside of the meeting when they were looking at providing a response to the quality accounts.

A Committee member felt that there was divergence in the two quality accounts and suggested that there be a template for these so that they could be more comparable.

The Chairman felt that the quality accounts were missing a summary which could highlight 3 measures for quality, and these could be considered when others are asked for feedback usually in a really short space of time.

A Committee member questioned the term significant harm and felt that it did not explain it well as serious harm for one person might not be the same for another and felt it would be interesting to see how that would be defined.

Wiltshire Health and Care Quality Accounts

The Chairman explained the Wiltshire Health and Care quality accounts had been received after the agenda for the meeting had been published and so these had been circulated to the committee as a supplement.  There were no questions or comments from the committee.

Resolved:

That the Health Select Committee

1.          Include the feedback raised at the meeting in the formal response to the RUH and Salisbury Hospital in relation to their Quality Accounts for 2023-24.

2.          Request that providers allow more time in the future for the committee to review and respond to the quality accounts and to include a summary of 3 key measures of quality.