The report of the Director of the Single Hospital Service Programme, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust is enclosed.

A video clip will also be played.

The Board received a report from the Director of Single Hospital Service (SHS) Programme which provided an update on the progress of the SHS. The report referred to delivery of the integration plans and Year Two post-merger plans following the creation of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and the current position regarding the proposal for MFT to acquire North Manchester General Hospital (NMGH). The Board also viewed the MFT “Together Care Matters – Our Values” video to demonstrate the ongoing work to engage staff and develop positive culture, values and leadership across the organisation.   

The Chair invited questions.

Members commented that the positive benefits provided by a single trust were noticeable and included the positivity and moral of staff to continue to develop and improve care and an increase in efficiency through dealing with a single citywide organisation rather than of a number of trusts.

A member referred to the involvement of Healthwatch and questioned why the number of Quality Impact Assessments (QIA) had increased from a single QIA, as previously reported, to four hundred QIAs.

It was reported that a review of the Single Hospital Service had revealed a large number of QIAs across the Trust. The Trust is committed to equality and diversity and the Integration Steering Group had received a report on the issue which would be shared with Healthwatch.

In welcoming the report, the Chair referred to the partnership of the MFT, Manchester Primary Care Partnership (MPCP) and Manchester Local Care Organisation (MLCO) and the work to move towards a preventative care approach away from hospital and closer to patient’s homes and asked would this be addressed in the next report.

The Board was informed that the report submitted had focussed primarily on the first year of the MFT, however during this period the MFT has provided a lot of support to the work of the MLCO. It was reported that a partnership of MFT, MLCO, the Council and MPCP is working to move the provision of care out of hospital and into patient’s homes. An example of this joint work included the recent discharge of 57 patients over a period of seven weeks who’s stay within hospital had gone over 100 days.

In noting the good progress made with MFT and the improvements in care provision in Wythenshawe and Central Manchester the Chair commented that the progress of the transformation journey had been delayed and it was necessary to accelerate the work in the development of a different approach to care. The point was also made that patient care at NMGH had suffered as a result of the uncertainty around the acquisition and transformation process of NMGH and it was now vital to finalise and agree a strategic case in order to move forward.

The meeting was informed that MFT is working closely with SRFT to accelerate two strategic cases. Further discussions with National Health Service Improvement (NHSI) had been necessary to resolve questions raised on national funding and NHSI options appraisal. This process would help to avoid a delay in completing the strategic case. It was reported that meetings would take place on 9 November with the Transaction Board and 21 November with the NHSI and it was anticipated progress could be made. It was acknowledged that the time taken in this process may be having an impact on the moral of staff at NMGH and staff engagement meetings had taken place to provide assurance to staff. As part of its involvement in the transformation process, SRFT was working to ensure patient safety is maintained at NMGH and arrangements were in place to promote NMGH to oversees nursing staff and recruit additional nursing staff in the short term.

Decisions

1. To note the report submitted and the comments received.

2. To note the current position of the Single Hospital Programme.