Highlights from the Bucks Health & Adult Social Care Select Committee
Buckinghamshire County Council’s Health and Adult Social Care Select Committee (HASC) holds the county’s health and adult social care decision-makers to account for the quality of the services they provide. The committee Chairman is Cllr Brian Roberts.
These are the main issues that came before the committee meeting on 6 September 2016.
Change to NHS vascular services
Background: Provision of a surgical procedure for unblocking the carotid artery, used in some patients at risk of a stroke, is being moved from Wycombe Hospital to the John Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. This is being done so that patients can have access to the specialist vascular team there 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Vascular surgeons will continue to offer day surgery at Wycombe Hospital (such as for varicose veins) and run outpatient clinics, including diabetic foot clinics, from Wycombe, Stoke, Amersham and Chalfont Hospitals.
Chairman’s comment: “The HASC was briefed on this issue in May 2016, and although the change only applies to one specialised procedure among the range of vascular services provided at Wycombe Hospital, the committee requested that NHS colleagues involved with this service attended today’s meeting to go through some areas of concern.”
15-minute adult social care visits
Background: Review of progress following the 2015 HASC inquiry into 15-minute care visits.
Chairman’s comment: “The HASC carried out an inquiry into 15-minute care visits, which was published in August 2015. Such short visits had given rise both nationally and locally to concern as to whether they allowed care workers to provide a suitable level of care for clients, together with issues of whether care workers were paid properly for their travel between such visits. The inquiry investigated the situation in Buckinghamshire, and made a series of policy recommendations to ensure best practice. Today’s agenda item is the one-year review of how well these recommendations have been realised.”
NHS maternity services
Background: One of the regular updates that HASC receives on different health and adult social care services in the county.
Chairman’s comment: “Part of the HASC’s work is to receive reports providing updates on different service areas in health and adult social care, and to have the chance to question those responsible for delivering each service about its overall quality and effectiveness, looking into any areas of particular concern. In common with most of the country, one of the key issues with maternity services locally is the recruitment and retention of midwives, about which we were keen to get reassurances.”