To agree the minutes of the previous meeting
of the Joint Health and Overview Scrutiny Committee (Frimley Park
Hospital) as a true and accurate record of proceedings.
The minutes were AGREED as a true and
accurate record.
3/25
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
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All Members present are required to declare,
at this point in the
meeting or as soon as possible thereafter
(i)
Any disclosable pecuniary interests and / or
(ii)
Other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in respect of any
item(s) of business being considered at this meeting
NOTES:
·
Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item
where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest
·
As well as an interest of the Member, this includes any interest,
of which the Member is aware, that relates to the Member’s
spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the Member is
living as a spouse or civil partner
·
Members with a significant personal interest may participate in the
discussion and vote on that matter unless that interest could be
reasonably regarded as prejudicial.
Cllr Trefor Hogg declared he was a community
representative for Frimley Health NHS Trust which is a
non-pecuniary interest. Cllr Bill Withers declared his wife worked
for Surrey Heath NHS. Cllr Tony Virgo declared he was a volunteer
of the Trust.
4/25
PUBLIC QUESTIONS
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To receive any public questions.
NOTES:
·
The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting
(18 February 2025).
Alex White, Programme Director (New Hospital
Programme)
Key points raised
during the discussion:
The Programme Director discussed
updates at the national and local level and the key priorities
moving forward. A review of the New Hospital Programme (NHP) was
called in July 2024 and the review concluded at the end of 2024 and
an announcement made in January 2025. All reinforced autoclaved
aerated concrete (RAAC) hospitals were deemed exempt from that
review, due to the risk posed by the RAAC structure of the
buildings. All 48 schemes were put into different waves of
construction set out by the Secretary of State following his
announcement on the 20 January 2025.The approximate capital budget
set out for each scheme was also provided. Frimley Park Hospital
was allocated one of the highest ranking budgets across all of the
schemes within the category of £1.5 billion (bn) to
£2bn, with the exact budget being determined as designs and
options were developed in conjunction with colleagues at the
centre, and an indicative construction start window was provided
from between 2028 and 2029. Frimley’s NHP construction start
was an outlier to other schemes as the hospital was brought onto
the NHP later than some of the other RAAC schemes. Work could be
done to bring the start date forward which is the intention.
The Programme Director explained
that identifying the preferred site was the key priority. Work was
undertaken in Autumn 2024 and early 2025 to establish the new
clinical strategy, ensuring a transformed service reflective of
mid-21st Century healthcare. This enabled the Frimley
NHP team to get the right size for the hospital in terms of
capacity and overall square-meterage, which supported the proper
analysis concerning the site options. The decision on the preferred
site was on track for mid to late Spring. As soon as a decision had
been made, they would continue to cooperate with the committee and
the wider community to ensure transparency. Due process in
accordance with Treasury guidelines to make this decision were
being applied and in particular, the use of an objective
data-driven comparison of different aspects, such as costs, risks
and benefits, to ensure a long-term full-economic appraisal on the
preferred option.
The Chief Strategy Officer updated
the committee on the Frimley Park Hospital extension and how they
planned to maintain the current hospital within the timeline
described, and how the additional capacity required would be
managed over the next few years. It was explained that the
extension was in the final stages of the circa £50 million
(m) building programme. It would provide 76 further beds and much
needed capacity for increased demand and would with the management
of the RAAC mitigation over the years. It provided an opportunity
to bring in state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging equipment such as a
breast care unit, to allow earlier access to treatment. This unit
would be opened in early April 2025, in a phased approach. The
three-storey building was created using modern methods of
construction, built in a modular-type fashion that has allowed for
a quick build with reduced carbon emissions and helps with the many
environmental factors.
Members were presented with a short video on
what the extension looked like ahead of the opening in early April
2025.
Carol Deans, Director of Communications &
Engagement
Ellie Davies, Associate Director of
Communications & Engagement
James Clarke, Chief Strategy Officer
Alex White, Programme Director (New Hospital
Programme)
Key points raised
during the discussion:
The Director of Communications &
Engagement outlined that the draft Communication and Engagement
Strategy incorporated the approach they intended to take and the
need to keep things as transparent as possible as well as the
ongoing communication throughout the process capturing the feedback
to set clear objectives and emphasise the collaboration between the
Trust, Integrated Care Board (ICB), system partners, and the
community. There was emphasis on stakeholder engagement as well as
patients, the public and staff, which included reference to
evaluation, ongoing continuous improvement, and crisis management
to ensure that they remain agile and able to respond in a crisis
scenario.
The Associate Director of
Communications & Engagement added that critical to the strategy
was the approach which concerned creating inclusive and accessible
communication to engage in dialogue with all communities across the
system to avoid the absence of voices within the decision making
process. The use of that insight in the Equality Impact Assessment
(EIA) would be a critical part of this work and would enable
planning and mitigation of any issues or challenges as the
programme progressed.
The Director of Communications &
Engagement outlined the areas of stakeholders approach, the seldom
heard, scrutiny, and communications channels and tools to ensure
communication and engagement with all audiences, were appropriate
and at the right time, and invited any comments from the committee
on the strategy.
The Chairman asked what the effects
were on the site selection/design process from the various NHS
policy changes, with a shift towards prevention rather than
intervention as that had serious implications for an acute
hospital. The Chairman also noted that he had not realised that the
addition to the building was so large in relation to the rest of
the site, that hospital design had changed, with more services and
space to consider. In relation to how the national policy has
impacted the work being undertaken, The Programme Director
explained that in response to the Darzi review, which had three
pillars: analogue to digital, acute to community, and care to
prevention, and which have guided the development of the clinical
strategy and associated service transformation plan. There were
five key initiatives: maximising the use of virtual hospital; a
focus on system-heavy users and improving provision of their care;
minimising unnecessary attendance at the ‘front-door’;
elective care, ensuring the delivery of care at the right place and
right time, particularly with high-volume and low-complexity
elective cases; and preventative care. Those were some key aspects
of the service transformation and had informed the demand and
capacity modelling and the shape of the hospital.
The Chief Strategy Officer noted
that a lot of the plan was about using existing space in a better
way and bringing diagnostic services into the community and closer
to home. There were plans to open more diagnostic centres in the
community, such as ...
view the full minutes text for item 8/25
Alex White, Programme Director (New Hospital
Programme)
Sam Burrows, Chief Transformation, Delivery
& Digital Officer
James Clarke, Chief Strategy Officer
Carol Deans, Director of Communications &
Engagement
Ellie Davies, Associate Director of
Communications & Engagement
Key points raised
during the discussion:
The Chief Strategy Officer provided
a brief overview to the Trust’s overarching organisational
strategy. For context it was noted that his previous experience
working on organisational strategies had been within three
different areas, notably the first being within the John Lewis
Partnership within the retail sector, the second being within the
Home Office working within central government, and the present
being within the NHS and that there is a strong connection with all
three areas and that was the focus on the communities and the
patients, within John Lewis that relates to the customer base, and
also with staff and how things can be improved for people to
provide an excellent service. There had been significant engagement
with this strategy over the last 18 months, with various groups and
over 3,500 sessions with the local community, including feedback
from patients, sessions with Foundation Trust members and the
public, open board sessions, and internal engagement with all
staff. This had been scrutinised throughout by the Board of
Non-Executive Directors and their elected Council of
Governors.
The Chief Strategy Officer outlined
the vison was to be “Compassionate, Effective and Modern in
all that we do”. Compassionate was about the care provided
and how patients and communities were treated. Effective was about
driving the right outcomes, operating productively, and use the
most effective techniques of healthcare to get better results for
patients. Modern was about a variety of different terms such as how
the Trust behaved, the facilities, tools, and techniques that would
be used.
The Chief Strategy Officer outlined
that the four strategic objectives to achieve that which included:
people were engaged, ensuring all 13,000 staff felt it was a great
place to work; the new modern infrastructure offered, for example
the new hospital, Heatherwood Hospital and development
opportunities at Wexham Park near Slough. In turn, they can deliver
excellent quality and a culture where quality and safety were
paramount would be a pillar of the strategy.
The Chief Strategy Officer explained
that the values were about the expectation of how staff would be
expected to behave every day and were developed by staff five years
ago from the previous strategy. Those values were committed to
excellence, and about people who wanted to work in an excellent
organisation, working together, and about people who want to face
the future. Half of each staff member’s annual review would
be based against their behaviour against those values.
The Chief Strategy Officer explained
those four strands and objectives with the committee and confirmed
that the detail is within the organisational strategy. Under the
‘Satisfied Patients’ objective it outlined the
importance of putting the patient at the heart of everything that
they do. This will be achieved by joining up care and providing
compassionate care, timely access ...
view the full minutes text for item 9/25
10/25
EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC
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That under Section 100(A) of the Local
Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting during
consideration of the following items of business on the grounds
that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information under
the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.
The Chairman stated that under Section 100(A)
of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded
from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds
that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information under
the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.
The Committee AGREED to exclude the
press and public for the remainder of the meeting.
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