Agenda item

The Panel considered a report of the Head of Democratic Services detailing Nottingham CityCare Partnership’s progress against its quality improvement priorities for 2014/15; and proposals for their Quality Account 2015/16, including plans for public engagement in developing the Quality Account.

Rosemary Galbraith, Assistant Director of Quality & Safety and Deputy Director of Nursing at Nottingham CityCare Partnership advised the Panel of the progress and, during discussion, stated the following;

(a)  Phlebotomy services are now being offered in a wider range of locations, with fewer complaints and shorter waiting times.  More information will be available in the annual quality account.  Rosemary will provide further written information from a provider perspective;

(b)  Healthwatch voiced concern that offering a choose and book service for blood tests is confusing for patients who are used to going straight to the phlebotomist in their own Health Centre following a GP referral

(c)  Members of the panel were also aware of concerns about the new phlebotomy arrangements and may consider further scrutiny in the future;

(d)  A mixture of practical and Admiral Nurses (dementia specialists) are employed to tackle the growing concern over Dementia.  Admiral Nurses have more all-round awareness of the condition.  Rosemary assured the Panel that collective work will continue to address the issue of Dementia;

(d)  Connect House, a care home run by an arms-length subsidiary of Nottingham CityCare Partnership (CityCare Connect Ltd), will impact on hospital discharge rates by providing an extension to the core care offer;

(e)  An evaluation of instances of falls in care homes will be carried out.  Early assessment and providing an appropriate high quality response will be a priority in the quality account, and will include case studies of how hospital admission can be prevented;

(f)  The following are coming year priorities for 2015/16:

  (i)  Pressure ulcers – a national and regional priority.

(ii)  Duty of Candour (ie the duty to ensure that providers are open and transparent with people who use services and receive care and treatment, and specifically when things go wrong with care and treatment) – has now been published and will be applied;

(iii)  Development of wider scrutiny – the needs of the patient can be met by public patient involvement.

(iv)  Carer support – signposting of carers to be improved for patients and families, by providing early information on initiatives and new projects;

(g)  A new DVD has been launched in care homes, and this contains information on how to prevent pressure ulcers.  In addition to this, the Tissue Viability Scheme provides more information on what pressure ulcers are, and how they can be recognised;

(h)  New priorities have been decided after a range of consultations with the NHS and patients, as well as other factors such as quality indicators, and feedback from last year’s priorities.  Patients provide a large proportion of feedback, through their complaints and praise, and also through their needs;

(i)  Ruth Rigby from Healthwatch voiced concerns over CityCare’s identity.  In some cases, the public do not know whether or not they are using a CityCare service.  The information that Healthwatch currently have on CityCare is fairly low, although a recent invite from CityCare to Healthwatch was welcomed, and provided useful insight.

(j)  Branding and logos for CityCare were distributed in April 2014.  Work to raise awareness of CityCare is still ongoing, and still has a way to go.  Members at the Panel were concerned that a low level of complaints for CityCare could be attributed to its low public profile.

RESOLVED to

(1)  thank Rosemary Galbraith and Nottingham CityCare Partnership for the information provided; and

(2)  request from Rosemary Galbraith written information on the phlebotomy service from a provider perspective; the project paper for Connect House to provide more information on the role of the arm’s length organisation and the service provided; and more details on the policy for pressure ulcer prevention and SKIN (pressure sore care).