Agenda and minutes

1.1           The minutes of the meeting held on 6 March 2025 were agreed as a correct record.

2.1           Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Sarah Osborne (Councillor Steve Murphy substituted), Councillor Christine Robinson, Councillor Graham Shaw, Jennifer Twist and Emma McDermott.

Disclosures by all members present of personal interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the member regards the interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct.

3.1  There were no disclosures of interest

Notification of items which the Chair considers to be urgent and proposes to take at the appropriate part of the agenda. Any members who wish to raise urgent items are asked, wherever possible, to notify the Chair before the start of the meeting. In so doing, they must state the special circumstances which they consider justify the matter being considered urgent.

4.1       There were no urgent items.

5.1           The Committee considered an update and evaluation report on the NHS Sussex Winter Plan. The Winter Plan set out how the local health and social care system plans to effectively manage capacity and demand pressures anticipated during the Winter period and ran from 1 November 2024 to 31 March 2025. The plan was developed against demand and capacity modelling for each of the key workstreams, and the outcomes have been evaluated against the objectives. This review identifies key areas of improvement to be incorporated into planning for Winter 2025-26.

5.2           The Committee asked what the barriers to discharging patients from hospital were and how capacity can be developed in the community to receive people out of hospital.

5.3           Ashley Scarff, Director of Joint Commissioning and Integrated Care Team Development NHS Sussex, responded that managing hospital discharge was a system-wide issue, requiring collaboration between all system partners. NHS Sussex have been working with partners to develop consistency in their approach to discharge; there was a correlation between the ability to discharge ‘No Criteria to Reside’ (NCTR) patients and bed occupancy levels, so this work is ongoing.

5.4           Mark Stainton, Director of Adult Social Care and Health, East Sussex County Council, clarified that NCTR refers to patients that no longer had a medical criteria to reside in hospital, but there are multiple reasons why people might need to remain in hospital longer than necessary. A number of NCTR patients have multiple and complex needs, including cognitive needs, so multiple agencies are engaged to safely discharge them. Significant capacity exists in the home care market, but bedded care placements were more limited and more complex needs made discharge into bedded care more complicated. While much work went into preventing people needing to go into hospital in the first place, there was also work done with hospital trusts to map patient journeys through hospital, particularly where they had an extended length of stay, to locate where they encounter barriers to discharge and address these ahead of time. While there had been a sustained improvement in the number of patients waiting for discharge, there was still a lot of progress needed.

5.5           Simon Dowse, Director or Transformation, Strategy and Improvement, East Sussex Healthcare Trust (ESHT) added that bed occupancy numbers could be misleading as what mattered from a hospital operational perspective was whether the right beds were available to meet patient need. This fluctuated day to day and multi-agency discharge events (MADE) had been successful in improving intra-day bed occupancy levels. The trust continues to work with community based bed capacity and the social care sector to improve flow of people. ESHT were also conducting analysis of its own processes to manage patients’ movement as quickly as possible.

5.6           The Committee asked how Integrated Care Board (ICB) savings plans will impact this capacity next winter.

5.7           Ashley Scarff clarified that the ICB was having to make savings in the cost of running the organisation, which is separate to its commissioning budget. The savings plans  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1           From 1 April 2025, following a procurement process run by NHS Sussex, ERS Transition Limited, trading as EMED Group, has been the provider of Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services (NEPTS) for Sussex. NEPTS is an eligibility driven service that is a statutory obligation for NHS commissioners to provide to transport patients to and from their healthcare appointments. The Committee considered an update report on the mobilisation of the new contract for NEPTS in Sussex.

6.2           The Committee asked whether there have been changes to the eligibility criteria for NEPTS with the new provider, as some residents had been unable to access the service.

6.3           Wendy Young, Director of Acute Services, Commissioning and Transformation NHS Sussex confirmed that the criteria for NEPTS is determined nationally, though there is some variation in how local areas interpret and apply it. In Sussex approximately 90% of NEPTS requests that are filed are accepted, compared to much lower rates of acceptance in areas like Surrey. Where there had been a lack of capacity, the system was working with the new provider to identify and fill gaps in transport. She clarified that if patients don’t meet the criteria, the provider has links to the VCSE sector and can direct them to organisations for assistance.

6.4           The Committee asked if there is a 2-week limit for patients when booking in advance of appointments, and how appointment information is considered as part of capacity planning.

6.5           Wendy Young responded with concern that patients had reported that they had not been able to book NEPTS in advance of their appointments. She confirmed that the issue would be investigated to ensure the ability to book further in advance was included within the service, and that this would be taken as an action from the meeting. It was important that patients who have been waiting a long time for appointments can have reassurance in their transport being booked further in advance. Wendy also agreed to verify that failed booking data was captured where appropriate.

6.6           The Committee asked what information is available to patients about NEPTS and similar resources in the VCSE sector, and what the routes to accessing the service are.

6.7           Danny Leach, Deputy Head of Acute Services, Commissioning and Transformation NHS Sussex, responded that extensive promotion among staff and patients had been undertaken at all hospital sites to raise awareness of the new service. He confirmed that appointments can be made online as well as via telephone, to make accessing the service as broad as possible. He clarified that where multiple cancellations are made, the system is reviewing eligibility of patients for unutilised NEPTS to free up capacity for those that need it.

6.8           The Committee asked what reminders are sent to patients about their booked transport.

6.9           Danny Leach responded that there is a reminder process in place, but there was further work to be done to ensure that the reminders are effective to mitigate future cancellations.

6.10        The Committee asked if there have been any changes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.1           The Committee received a verbal update from Ashley Scarff about changes to NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, and changes to the ICB. NHS Sussex will be merging with NHS Surrey, to form one ICB covering two health and care systems.

7.2           The Committee requested to receive a regular update from NHS Sussex, to report back on progress and changes within the ICB. The Committee requested that this update include metrics for performance and areas for improvement in key areas of interest, so it can be used to inform the future work programme.

7.3           The Committee discussed the items on the future work programme.

7.4          The Committee RESOLVED to:

1)    Receive a regular update from NHS Sussex;

2)    Schedule the reports on Access to Primary Care Services and the Children and Young People Mental Health update to its September meeting; and

3)    Defer the full reports on the HOSC Review of the Provision of Audiology Services in East Sussex and Paediatric Service Model at Eastbourne District General Hospital, currently scheduled for its September 2025 meeting, and instead receive a short update on these items.

8.1  None.