Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from the following Board members:

Hazel Carpenter;

Sharon McLaughlin;

Councillor Wells.

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 10 November 2016.

The minutes of the meeting held on 10 November 2016 were agreed as a correct record.

Colin Thompson, Public Health Specialist, KCC introduced the item for discussion.

 The key points for noting are that:

·  A public consultation on the strategy is currently underway, having been launched on 09 January 2017 and would end on 19 February 2017;

·  The finalised strategy will be presented to the KCC Adult Health & Social Care Cabinet Committee by end of February, before sign-off by Councillor Gibbens  and implementation in April, 2017;

·  This proposals is built on the previous KCC Alcohol Strategy and the Kent Police Drugs and Alcohol Strategy;

·  Governance arrangements for this strategy will be through the Joint Commissioning Group for Drugs and Alcohol that meets bi-monthly;

·  Any views raised the Group will be fed into the Kent Drugs and Alcohol Partnership, which meets twice per year;

·  Reports will then be taken to the county wide Health and Wellbeing Board and the county wide Crime Partnership Board;

·  The strategy is built around 5 key themes, which are:

o  Resilience

o  Identification

o  Early help and harm reduction

o  Recovery

o  Supply

Members of the Board made the following comments:

·  It was important to cross link issues that affect vulnerable people. For example individuals with mental health problems may also experience housing problems;

·  This meant that access to improved housing should be an integral part of health promotion services;

·  Agencies should provide appropriate advice and referrals;

·  It was important to for the strategy to be translated to local engagement by various agencies;

·  Issuing of off licences should be scaled down in the future in order to reduce domestic violence linked to alcohol misuse;

·  It was hoped that the new strategy would raise health risk awareness of issues that affect older people in the community;

·  Mental health is an issue that needs tackling in Thanet using dual diagnosis;

In response Colin Thompson said that:

·  There is an Inequalities Group, which is a sub group of the Thanet CCG. They will monitor the implementation of the Kent Drug and Alcohol Strategy focusing on a Plan that will be developed specifically for Thanet area;

·  Dual diagnosis was working well as an approach to addressing mental health problems in the county;

The Chairman suggested the need for the authorities to come up with high impact measures to address some of the health problems being experienced by communities. This could include setting the minimum prices for alcohol. One Board member suggested that such views could be forwarded to the LGA who then could lobby government. Madeline Homer offered to take the lead on that issue because Thanet District Council was already engaging the LGA on other policy matters. The Board agreed the suggestion.

Members noted the report.

Mr Thompson introduced the item for discussion.

It was noted that:

·  The approach by the campaign to target displaced individuals was appropriate as they were more vulnerable to depression and suicide;

·  The campaign is making some progress and was getting some positive feedback;

·  It was difficult to predict the trend. However the intervention by the KCC was dependent on making near accurate prediction of data (which can be variable due the small nature of the population of the some of the areas that were affected by suicides) and hence the challenge to intervene appropriately;

·  There is a further campaign being arranged for this year on ‘Release the Pressure;’

·  Man are more common to be involved in suicide;

Members made the following observations:

·  It looks like most of the problems highlighting as being the cause of suicides are work related.

·  Having a proper job that gives someone a stable future would help reduce the risk of suicides that are work related/lack of work and give an individual (especially the young ones) a sense of purpose in life;

·  Posters with awareness messages should be put in in more places than GP surgeries. The options could include supermarkets and schools

·  Early intervention to support individuals who may be experiences such problems that make them vulnerable to suicide.

In response to one of the comments, Colin Thompson agreed to feedback to colleagues working on the campaigns to consider more options on where to place the posters.

The report was noted.

Ailsa Ogilvie, Chief Operating Officer, Thanet CCG introduced the item for discussion and gave an update on the NHS Strategic Transformation Plan (STP) and East Kent Delivery Board.

It was noted that:

·  There were some challenges facing the NHS;

o  These include an aging population;

o  Long term health conditions;

o  Significant funding gap of @ £28 Billion;

·  At the national level the response to these challenges is the 5 year Forward View and the establishment of the STP;

·  The focus is on:

o  Prevention;

o  Reaching people earlier;

o  Supporting people to self-manage;

o  Options for service re-design;

o  Focus to close the funding gap;

o  Focus on how we change the ways of working (for example in Thanet) in order to achieve greater results with less.

·  Emphasis is on collaboration between agencies (including commissioning groups);

·  Ambition is to narrow health inequalities;

·  Establishing strong local care to support  new hospital models;

·  The STP has gone to an initial public consultation that started in November 2016;

·  All work streams within the STP and EK Delivery Board are active including;

·  Mobilisation workshops have been scheduled;

·  Public engagement events with patient groups in Thanet are being planned for the out of hospital work stream;

·  Kent and Medway patient reference groups will be set up.

Maria Howdon, Head of Membership Development (NHS Thanet CCG) also led the second half of the presentation and made the provided the following practical updates:

·  Funding of work streams have been confirmed;

·  There is support for transformational process for the next 3 years;

·  Supporting practices on the ground to deliver the transformation;

·  Training for Receptionists, Medical Assistants to take on more administrative roles and free up medical practitioners;

·  Developing Innovative ways for staff recruitment and retention;

·  Awarded the Estate and Technology Transformation fund bid of £622,000, Improving digital infrastructure to improve mobile working using GPs clinical system and linking GP practices in the area;

·  Invest to improve access to primary care services;

·   Funding for Clinical Pharmacist roles in practices:  to support practices employ these professionals;

·  Nurse Associate Schemes – upskilling health assistants and create opportunities so that they can take on other duties and roles;

·  Develop and place other workforce options, like Physician Associates, Medical Assistants, Care Navigators and paramedic trainees within practices;

·  Support the Primary Care Homes Practitioners (specialised role for GPs and Nurses) role;

·  Premises Infrastructure development – this will cover Margate area (including conducting some feasibility studies at the Westwood Cross because of the housing development that has taken place in that area).

In summing up debate Board members said that the updates given at the meeting were good news. The public consultation to be conducted in mid-summer will give an opportunity for pre-consultation engagement. Thanet patients will be happy for decisions to be made at a local level. It was worth noting that more emphasis on self-care is important. Members felt very encouraged by these developments in particular the participation of patients at the earliest stages of the planning process. This approach adopts  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.