Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on the 8^th September 2023 are attached for approval, together with the Action List.

The minutes of the meeting held on 8 September 2023 were approved as an accurate record with no matters arising.

Members of the Board to declare an interest in any particular agenda item.

Hassan Malek – Owner of Birtley Pharmacy, Haras Bank.

Sami Hanna – Owner of Lobley Hill Pharmacy.

No other declarations were made.

·         The launch of the ICB Women’s Health Strategy was held on 19 October 2023 and was considered a brilliant event. It brought together women across the region to discuss the new government strategy for women’s health and turn it into a reality with a focus for the North East.

·         Sam Allen (Chief Executive of ICB) has been appointed Chair of the National Committee on Maternity and Neo Natal Services.

·         The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Suicide and Self-harm Prevention is organising a data gathering trip to the North East. Liz Twist, Gateshead Member of Parliament, is the Chair of this Parliamentary Group.

·         Extraordinary meetings of the 7 North East Local Authorities will be happening over the next two weeks regarding the creation of a new combined authority. A shadow Cabinet has been established for the Combined Authority in advance to begin work on its agreed main priority area: poverty and inequality. Updates on this will continue to be given to the Board.

·         Funding bids have been made for the following areas of work:

o   Women’s health hub

o   Respiratory hubs

·         A media announcement was made on 12 October 2023 regarding a consultation on smoking that the Board may wish to respond to.

·         The number of pregnant people smoking have fallen to under 10% in Gateshead for the first time.

·         Digital Transformation NHS has signed up to the Waiting Well Initiative, to ensure patients waiting for surgery are given advice and support through their waiting period.

·         Gateshead Citizens Advice is now open 7 days a week and can provide emergency food parcels and fuel top ups over the weekend.

·         A Great Northern Care Record event is scheduled to take place on the afternoon of 20 October 2023. Development of Badger Net is also continuing and NHS staff will now be able to access records from other practices and patients will have access to their medical history.

·         £10,000,000 has been invested into the Healthy Homes Project, which helps people in the private rental sector who are living in unsuitable housing.

RESOLVED:

i.              To add a presentation on the Women’s Health Strategy to the Board’s work programme.

ii.             To invite the Chief Executive of Gateshead Health FT to give a presentation to the Board on plans to become a women’s regional health organisation.

iii.           To circulate details of trip to the North East of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Suicide and Self-harm Prevention.

iv.           Alice Wiseman to prepare a response to the national consultation on smoking to be circulated to the Board. 

Presentation of Louise Lydon, Hassan Malek and Sami Hanna

The Board received a presentation from representatives of the Local Pharmaceutical Committee on community pharmacy roles and the various ways that pharmacies support local communities. An overview was provided of the range of pharmacies within Gateshead, the different types of services they provide, how they interface with other local health and care services, the pressures and challenges facing the profession and options going forward.

The Board confirmed that it values the role of community pharmacy in supporting local communities across Gateshead. The Chair clarified that the Board is not a commissioning board although it acknowledged that the funding model for pharmacies needs to be reviewed.

The Board agreed that pharmacies are often undervalued and considered to solely dispense medication. There are concerns about making sure there is enough pharmacy provision. The Board was supportive of work being undertaken to investigate the scope to replicate the model being used in South Tyneside. The LCP works across South Tyneside and Gateshead and would like to implement some of the strategies in Gateshead.

The Board also felt that there needs to be a culture change regarding referrals, and how a majority of patients prefer to see doctors over other practitioners.

A discussion was had by the Board of how communication needs to be improved regarding the services that local pharmacies provide as many residents will not be aware of the full range of those services. Information is needed from the ICB on which pharmacies are signed up to pharmacy advance services so that the public can be informed.

There was also concern raised about members of the public being unable to afford their prescriptions. Some anecdotal evidence of this was discussed of examples of this issue occurring and how community pharmacies were able to provide support.

RESOLVED:

i.              Gateshead Citizens Advice and LCP to meet to further discuss poverty barriers to accessing prescriptions and pharmacy services and to put out communications to pharmacies on how to help patients and secure access to hardship funding. 

ii.                   To recommend adding support for community pharmacies to the agenda of an ICP North meeting to provide further support and to restate the commitment to community pharmacies.

iii.                 To recommend that the application of elements of the community pharmacy model in South Tyneside to be considered by the Gateshead ICB Place Committee.

iv.                 The Board noted the report.

Presentation of Anna Foster, Anna English and Rebecca Tait

The Board  was given a report on the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust 2023 strategy, With You in Mind.

The five ambitions highlighted in the strategy were as follows:

·         Ambition 1: Quality care, every day

·         Ambition 2: Person-led care, when and where it is needed

o   Community based care for adults and older people with mental ill-health

o   Inpatient care for adults and older people with mental ill-health

o   Children and young people

o   People with a learning disability

o   People with neurodevelopmental conditions

o   People who need support from secure services

o   People with neurodisabilities

o   People with problematic substance use or addictive behaviours

·         Ambition 3: A great place to work

·         Ambition 4: Sustainable for the long term, innovating every day

·         Ambition 5: Working with and for our communities

It was reported that CNTW’s strategy seeks to build relationships and to make decisions based on what matters to people. It sets out the Trust’s commitments to its service users, families and carers, its staff and to its partners and communities. . An annual plan will be developed each year which explains what the Trust will do that year to deliver the strategy.

The Board queried who was consulted in developing the strategy as public health were not consulted as part of its development. It also queried what the timescales were for delivering the strategy, when progress would be seen in addressing the challenges relating to mental health services, including access to services, waiting times etc. and whether targets have been set to guide delivery of the strategy’s ambitions.

It was also raised how we can prevent fragmentation and ensure continuity between hospital and community provision. It was reported that CNTW are looking at the clinical model and that this can come back to the HWB at a future date.

A brief update was also provided ion the Trieste model of care and potential application of some components of this model to community service provision.

REVOLVED:

i.              The Board noted the report.

ii.             CNTW to come back to the Board with an update on its clinical model at a future date.

Report of Yvonne Probert

The Board was given a presentation on the Healthwatch Annual Report 2022-23. This report marks Healthwatch’s 10-year anniversary.

Highlights of the 2022/23 report were set out quarterly and included the following:

·         Spring

o   Worked to better understand how the COVID pandemic impacted on health and wellbeing.

o   Focused on refugees and asylum seekers to understand health and social care priorities for these local communities.

·         Summer

o   Welcomed a new team tasked with helping to achieve a mission of engaging with local people to help improve health and social care services in Gateshead.

o   Engaged with young people aged 18-25 to understand their views and general experiences of loneliness and social isolation.

·         Autumn

o   Commissioned by Gateshead Council to understand the experiences of unpaid carers emerging from the COVID pandemic. Healthwatch highlighted issues around communication, capacity, coordination, and competence.

o   Launched online monthly forums, inviting local health and social care organisations to share information about their services. Each month focuses on a specific topic area and welcomes local people along to learn more about what is available.

·         Winter

o   Fed into the submission of evidence to the House of Commons Cross-Party Health and Social Care Committee Inquiry into Dentistry.

o   Made a targeted effort to engage with young people aged between 16-25 through the launch of phase one of Youthwatch Project. 

Healthwatch Gateshead continually gathers information on local people’s experiences of using health and/or social care services. Its annual survey informs Healthwatch of the public’s experiences; people’s views are also collected at the Annual Meeting.

The following themes are being discussed to form the 2023/24 work plan:

·         Hospital Discharge

·         Access to GPs

·         Mental Health

·         Accessible Information Standards

·         Health Literacy

·         Youthwatch

·         Social Care

Healthwatch highlighted that there tends to be higher engagement with older people, and that Healthwatch has had a heavy reliance on youth service partners, colleges and universities, and Gateshead’s Youth Assembly to support the Youthwatch service.

The OSC discussed Healthwatch’s role in promoting sexual health, and that Healthwatch representatives would be invited to have a place on the Children’s Systems Board.

RESOLVED:

i.              The Board noted the report.

Presentation of Mark Dornan

The OSC was given a presentation updating on the work of Gateshead Cares, including the Integrated Adults and Social Care Services Living Thriving Lives Plan (2023-28), which was noted as supporting Gateshead’s Thrive ambitions and aims to make accessing support and services as easy as possible.

Progress reviews have been held for Priorities 2 and 4 for the Gateshead Place Plan. Updates given are as follows:

Priority 2: Giving Children and Young People the Best Start in Life

·         A Family Hub steering group has been established; healthy relationships pathway is now live; an infant feeding co-ordinator recruited.

·         Joined up pathways across the system from children to transition and to adults required; Pathway and MDT Stakeholder event 11/10/23.

·         Review of crisis pathway for CYP underway.

·         The Teenage Resource "The Little Book of Useful Stuff" has been distributed across the Gateshead System.

·         Roll out of the Asthma and Allergies masterclasses have taken place.

·         The GP Kitemark Children and Young People friendly practice has been developed by 7 local GP practices.

Priority 4: Longer and Healthier Lives – Mental Health, Learning Disability, Autism and Aging Well

·         Integrated workforce plan established.

·         Plan developed with Talking Therapies to increase awareness of the service offer and increase referrals.

·         Autism hubs in Gateshead - Daisy Chain is the appointed provider and will work out of 5 hubs across Gateshead.

·         Focus on Older Persons Dementia Beds and Pathway – work underway to appraise current offer in Residential and Nursing Care; options paper being developed; work underway to understand the pathway and where improvements can be made.

·         Update provided on the work of the RISE Mental Health in Schools Team and plans for 2023/24 were discussed.

·         Progress was considered in taking forward Generalist Home Care transformation as part of the Ageing Well programme of work:

o   LA have invested in Home Care to support Sustainability

o   Workforce has grown steadily since May 2023

o   Funding for Short-Term Services agreed and required services in place

o   New PIC to open end of Nov 23 (increased capacity)

o   Current waiting list is in single figures

o   Improved flow continues keep delayed discharges at low numbers

The OSC was updated that Gateshead Cares considered a report on asylum and migration in Gateshead.  Updates have been sought from system partners to inform a future item on this issue.

An expression of interest was also discussed by the Gateshead Cares Board for a Women’s Health Hub Investment opportunity. There was widespread support for the bid which links to key programmes of work across Gateshead Place, our Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the DPH’s most recent Annual Report which had a specific focus on Women and Health Inequalities. The ICB is currently evaluating the bids received; the first Women’s Health Conference took place on 19th October to inform implementation plans; and further detail has been sought from those who submitted bids to get a better understanding of current gaps and opportunities.

The Board noted that it was important to quantify the needs of people seeking  ...  view the full minutes text for item HW55

The OSC noted a letter expressing that effect from 25th September 2023 the Lloyds Pharmacy Ltd at Pattinson Drive, Crawcrook, Ryton, NE40 4US will be operated by Parkside Crawcrook Limited and the pharmaceutical list for the area of Gateshead Health and Wellbeing Board will be amended with effect from that date.

The OSC noted a letter expressing that with effect from 2nd October 2023, the L Rowland & Co (Retail) Ltd at Former Five Star Batteries, Meresyde, Leam Lane, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, NE10 8PE, will be operated by Gateshead Pharma Limited and the pharmaceutical list for the area of Gateshead Health and Wellbeing Board will be amended with effect from that date.

No other business was raised.

The next meeting of the Gateshead Health and Wellbeing Board will be held on 1 December 2023 at 10:00, in the Bridges Room.