Hampshire County Council Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Hampshire Together Meeting

Apologies were received from Councillors Frampton, Harrison and Joy. Councillor Hiscock was in attendance as a deputy member.  

Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter considered at the meeting they must declare that interest at the time of the relevant debate and, having regard to the

circumstances described in Part 3, Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's

Members' Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code. Furthermore Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Personal interest in a matter being considered at the meeting they considered whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 5 of the Code, considered whether it was appropriate to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

Councillor Porter declared an interests as the Cabinet Member for Place and Planning at Winchester City Council.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 30 September 2022 were agreed.

There were no deputations.

There were no announcements.

The Committee received a presentation from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board (the ICB) and Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust (the Trust) setting out the background to the Hampshire Together programme, recent developments and plans for a public consultation exercise. As part of the presentation, the following was noted:

• Modernising the Trust’s Hospitals and Health Services programme had the opportunity to deliver a new hospital to serve the people of north and mid Hampshire, as well as many other healthcare benefits, as part of the government’s New Hospital Programme.
• The case for change included the changing population, ensuring clinical sustainability, financial resilience and the current building estate requiring maintenance.
• Members noted that any new facility must be constructed to a Net Zero Carbon

Hospital Standard, which was part of the NHS Long Term Plan.

·         The notion of a Hampshire Healthcare Campus was revisited as part of the discussion, with the desire to enable cross sector collaborations, a focus on research, innovation and implementation, space-enabled services and an NHS Sustainability Living Lab.

·         In May, a formal policy announcement on the National Hospital Programme was discussed in parliament. The announcement included confirmation of the Trust’s position on the programme. Post-announcement, the Trust received a formal letter outlining the funding allocation.

·         Prior to proceeding to consultation, the next steps include completing the NHS England Stage 2 Assurance process and receiving national approval to proceed. There were several, additional detailed steps which were set out for Members. Following completion of these steps, the ICB was intending to go out to public consultation on the new hospital plans.

·         The consultation was planned to run for 12 weeks with the start date not yet confirmed. An overview of planned consultation and engagement activity was set out for Members.

The Committee welcomed any progress on the new hospital programme but agreed that the trajectory to date had been slow whilst announcements were awaited. In response to Members’ questions and as part of the discussion, the following points were raised:

·         No decision had been made on the site for the new hospital. Two potential sites were in scope – one near to Junction 7 of the M3 motorway with the second site being the existing Basingstoke Hospital footprint. Members noted that the consultation would need to be conducted first, before any decision was made on the site.

·         The possibility of dental training could be provided on site at the Healthcare Campus – the lack of training and the challenges in accessing dental services across Hampshire were noted.

·         Discussion was held regarding the importance of staff wellbeing and resilience and the significant contribution made by the NHS internationally educated workforce.

·         Members also discussed the importance of engaging with hard to reach patient groups – those who choose not to engage. The ICB advised that there was a patient representative on the Patient and Public Advisory Group for each group and that gaps had been identified with representatives being sought from the traveller community and the veterans community. The ICB was cognisant of the fact that the NHS is not always viewed as a trusted place by everyone and that it was important to use existing links within communities to help build trust.

·         The consultation itself would be funded by the national New Hospitals Programme and not by the Trust or the ICB themselves. Members agreed it would be sensible to make this information available to aid public understanding.

·         It was confirmed that there would be an Emergency Department at the new hospital and that future proofing for decades to come, fluctuations in demand, was being carefully considered.

·         Discussions around children and young people’s care focused upon the importance of outpatients as well as inpatients.

·         The ICB noted that, when the consultation was due to launch, they intended to share consultation materials with partners (including the County Council) and would request that partners share links and encourage engagement using their normal channels.

RESOLVED:

That the Joint Committee note the update.