Agenda item - Formal Public Involvement

This is the part of the meeting when members of the public can formally ask questions of the Board or present a petition.  These need to be notified to the Board in advance of the meeting.  Ring the Secretary to the Board, Mark Wall on 01273 291006 or send an email to mark.wall@brighton-hove.gov.uk

(a)          Petition for a New Nursing Home – Lead petitioner, Elle Mcintyre (copy attached).

(a)          Petitions:

22.1      The Chair noted that a petition regarding the provision of a nursing home for sufferers with Huntington disease had been submitted and that the lead petitioner was not present at the meeting.  He therefore suggested that the petition be noted and officers from both the council and the CCG be asked to meet with the petitioner to discuss the matter further.  He also noted that provision was available in nursing homes across the city and additional support could be provided on a case basis.

22.2      RESOLVED: That the petition be noted.

(b)          Public Questions:

22.3      The Chair noted that one public question had been received and invited Dr. Walker to put his question to the Board.

22.4      Dr. Walker thanked the Chair and asked the following question;

“How has the HWB responded to Brighton CCG’s decision, without any consultation, to move to an inexperienced and controversial private RMS provider in Optum and, in light of Optum’s current local failings, will the HWB take action?”

22.5      The Chair replied; “As you are aware, NHS Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) awarded a new contract for the provision of a redesigned Referral Management Service (RMS) to Optum Health Solutions, which came into effect on the 1st September. Optum is an experienced provider of referral management services with a proven track record over the past five years in Hounslow and more recently in Ealing, Dorset and Bedfordshire.

Since go-live, the service has experienced significant issues with the national NHS e-Referral system which facilitates the booking of appointments into secondary care and community based services. The CCG have had confirmation from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) that the issues are with the e-Referral system and not the Optum IT system. This system issue resulted in GP practices being unable to send referrals to Optum in a way that they could be easily identified and the time taken to process referrals from NHS e-Referrals was significantly increased. As a result, the service experienced delays in processing these referrals and booking of patient appointments were subsequently delayed.

Issues with the system have now been resolved and both the CCG and Optum are closely monitoring NHS e-Referral to ensure that the system is functioning effectively. The backlog that developed during September has now been cleared and the service is now working and processing referrals in ‘real-time’ and in line with contractual requirements. The service will be sending out letters to all patients to apologise for the delay in their referrals.”

22.6      Dr. Walker noted the response and asked the following supplementary question; “My real concern remains with the privatisation of services within the National Health Service and the lack of public consultation or understanding of how services will be affected if they move to organisations such as Optum which is a subsidiary of United Health and its reputation is not one that public services deserve.  Do you have a view on this and the future of services?”

22.7      The Chief Operating Officer for the CCG noted the comments and stated that under the Group’s procurement rules it was not able to determine which organisations were able to bid for contracts.  However, it was clear about the level of quality and viability of the service that was required and would seek to ensure that those expectations were met in the delivery of services.

22.8      The Chair thanked Dr. Walker for attending the meeting and putting his questions.  He noted that there were no other questions and therefore the item was concluded.