Issue - meetings

27.1     The Committee considered a report by the Assistant Chief Executive to provide an update on a) plans to reconfigure East Sussex dementia assessment beds; and b) on recent performance and new developments in diagnosis.

27.2     Martin Packwood, Head of Joint Commissioning (Mental Health), East Sussex County Council; and Dr Mokhtar Isaac, Clinical Director East Sussex, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT); provided the following responses to the Committee’s questions about the dementia assessment bed reconfiguration plans:

·         The reason for the delay in the implementation of the reconfiguration of dementia assessment beds is that the project has had to pause twice in order to build a stronger consensus between stakeholders. In the long term, the project has to command the confidence clinically of SPFT and the CCGs.

·         The first pause was made in order to carry out clinical engagement with SPFT to ensure that the Trust was absolutely content with the proposed numbers of beds, and the proposed levels of reinvestment in community services that would be made using the savings generated through the closure of existing bed capacity.

·         The second delay was due to decision to engage with partners – such as Healthwatch and Care for the Carers – to ensure that the proposed site – St Gabriel’s Ward at Conquest Hospital – was the most inclusive and appropriate site for the long term inpatient dementia care. 

·         The reason that it will take two years to implement the reconfiguration is that the St. Gabriel ward will be refurbished into a purpose built dementia intensive care unit. This will be, effectively, a new build that will require significant capital planning and expenditure.

·         Significant interim refurbishment of the Beechwood Unit in Uckfield has been undertaken to ensure that it is safe and effective enough to deliver services whilst the St. Gabriel Ward is redeveloped.

27.3     Martin Packwood, and Kim Grosvenor, Dementia Programme Lead, HWLH CCG; provided a presentation on the Memory Assessment Services in East Sussex. They provided the following information in response to questions:

Golden Ticket

·         Golden Ticket is a new model of care being piloted in the HWLH CCG area. The Golden Ticket pilot included 40 patients living in their own homes with their carers. However, the principals of the Golden Ticket – to support dementia patients throughout the dementia journey – will also apply to patients in nursing and residential homes. In addition, some of the interventions for the 40 pilot patients have been delivered to nursing homes in the Buxted area; and the CCG is working with the Care Home In-reach Team and the GPs who do home visits to care and nursing homes to raise awareness of the Golden Ticket programme.

·         At the start of the Golden Ticket pilot, each of the 40 patients and their carer was visited in their own home by a GP to explain the purpose of the project and the organisations involved in delivering it. All patients had to sign a document to say that they were happy to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27

Report by the Assistant Chief Executive

To consider a progress report on the development of a business plan for the future provision of NHS dementia assessment beds in East Sussex.

39.1     HOSC considered a report of the Assistant Chief Executive updating the Committee on the progress of the redesign of the dementia assessment bed service in East Sussex.

39.2     Ashley Scarff and Martin Packwood outlined progress with the development of the business plan.

39.3     HOSC registered its concern at the extended delays in implementing this project. 

39.4     The CCGs and ESCC shared HOSC’s disappointment with the delays and confirmed:

• There was full clinical support for the reconfiguration of the crisis services to provide a more proportionate response in line with option 4 as recommended by the original HOSC scrutiny review.
• There had been an underestimate in the scale of capital investment required for the redesign - albeit this was a minimal contributor to the delay.
• Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT) is a partner in the project and the organisation putting up the capital investment for the redesigned service. The Trust’s Board needs to be satisfied that the location and capital cost of the redesigned service is as robust as it can conceivably be before going ahead.

39.5     RESOLVED: to agree that HOSC should maintain a watching brief over this matter and request a report back when there is a conclusion (HOSC would expect this to happen later in 2015).