Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary or other relevant interests declared.

The minutes of the meeting held on 5^th March, 2014 were signed as a true record.

With reference to Minute 57 headed ‘Referral by Healthwatch Coventry – Commissioning of Patient Transport Services’ a request was made for clarification about further actions by the Board. Attention was drawn to the meeting of the Disability Equalities Advisory Panel on 28^th March, 2014 where a number of similar concerns about the Patient Transport Service had been highlighted.

RESOLVED that:

(1) A copy of the letter sent to the Coventry and Rugby CCG outlining the Board’s recommendations to be forwarded to Healthwatch Coventry.

(2) An update on Patient Transport Services by the Coventry and Rugby CCG to be submitted to a future Board meeting.  

Report of the Director of Public Health

The Scrutiny Board considered a report of the Director of Public Health concerning the review and retendering of the Sexual Health Services. The report was also to be considered by Cabinet at their meeting on 13^th May, 2014. Veronica Ford, Associate Director Primary Care and Prevention and Kerry Beasley, Lead Nurse, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust attended the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The report indicated that from 1^st April, 2013 Local Authorities had been mandated to commission comprehensive open access sexual health services. The City Council was looking to tender for sexual health services jointly with Warwickshire County Council during 2014/15 and discussions were under way with the NHS England Specialised Commissioning Team with regard to their responsibilities for HIV treatment services and the possibility of joint commissioning. The incumbent contractor of the main contract in Coventry was Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust. It was the intention that the new contract would commence on 1^st April, 2015. The current contract value was approximately £4m for Coventry and £3m for Warwickshire.

The report included a summary of the review of sexual health services which has been undertaken, including a consideration of the health needs in Coventry relating to sexual health; a summary of the engagement and consultation work carried out; and the planned process for retendering jointly with Warwickshire County Council.

Members of the Board questioned the officer and responses were provided, matters raised included:

·  An assurance that the commissioning documentation would seek to perpetuate current good practice within the service

·  The experience of working with the different communities within the city

·  Clarification about the requirements for the work with HIV patients

·  The links that the service has other services ie mental health, drug and alcohol services

·  How the service reaches older people at risk

·  The different requirements from the service for Coventry compared to Warwickshire and the potential for services to operate to different priorities and standards in their areas

·  Potential health checks and support for asylum seekers

·  Clarification that the consultation reached all the different groups in the city

·  The potential local and national providers who might be interested in the new contract and whether there would be just one or several smaller contracts

·  The work to be undertaken with the different faith groups including consulting with the mosques and temples

·  In cases of positive testing of sexual diseases, the work carried out to trace partners

·  The availability of nhs data for the service

·  The impact of the work of the school nursing service and whether the school academies were accessing this service

·  How the service identified and made referrals for cases of female genital mutilation. 

RESOLVED that:

(1) Having considered the report, the following recommendations be referred to Cabinet and the Arden Joint Sexual Health Project Board:

(a)  The Sexual Health Services be recommended to work with the faith communities including the free schools, taking up the offer of assistance from Councillor Sehmi

(b)  A continuous assurance be provided that lesbians, gays  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.

The officers will report at the meeting

Richard Hancox, Associate Director, Clinical Strategy at Arden, Hereford and Worcestershire Area Team has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator indicating that NHS England had been developing a plan to share patient data with a view to making improvements in the quality of patient care. The introduction of this proposal, ‘Care Data’ had recently been paused to allow further time for information to be shared and to create more public support. Richard Hancox, Associate Director, Clinical Strategy at Arden, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Area Team attended the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The proposals were to share date of birth, postcode, NHS number and gender along with certain care records with the intention being that the new care record did not allow identification of individuals, with the sharing of this being controlled by both law and strict confidentiality rules. The information would be held by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. The proposed benefits of sharing this anatomised data had been contrasted with the potential impact on privacy and a number of concerns had been raised. As a consequence a six month pause in the implementation had been introduced.

Appendices attached to the briefing note set out the information leaflet prepared by NHS England and the frequently asked questions sheet for both GPs and patients.

Members of the Board questioned the representative on a number of issues and responses were provided, matters raised included:

·  A concern that most people did not know about the proposal because they hadn’t received the information leaflet

·  The option for patients to be able to opt-out of the scheme or whether there would be an opt-in policy

·  Responsibility for communication to make people aware of the proposal and whether there was a communication strategy

·  A concern that people would not be provided with sufficient information to be able to make a decision

·  Whether there had been local discussions about the proposal at the Area Team and if they had been made aware of any concerns

·  What could be done about the potential for the data to be used in a detrimental way by private sector companies, for example insurance companies or pharmaceutical companies

·  A concern that companies could get hold of an individual’s personal health details

·  Why were Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland not planning to introduce the proposal.

RESOLVED that:

(1) The Chair, Councillor Thomas to contact the City’s MPs informing them of the concerns of the Board, who have the same concerns as constituents, regarding the development of the plan to share patient data with a view to making improvements in the quality of patient care.

(2) University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire to be contacted with a request for information about patients’ data for acute care, with the information being circulated to members of the Board.   

Outstanding issues have been picked up in the Work Programme

The Board noted that all outstanding issues had been included in the work programme, Minute 67 below refers.

Report of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator

The Board noted their work programme for the current year, in particular the issues to be considered at the last meeting of 2013/14. Regarding the item ‘Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust – Feedback form the Recent Care Quality Commission Inspection’, Justine Williams, CWPT, confirmed that the final report was to be available from 17^th April, 2014.

Any other items of public business which the Chair decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved

There were no additional items of public business.