Agenda item - Chairs Communications

38.1    The Chair gave the following communications:

            “I would like to welcome everyone to the HOSC meeting.

            I’m sure many of you will have seen that the local Sustainability & Transformation Plan (STP) has now been published. At the last HOSC meeting, members agreed to hold a special meeting to look at the STP. Instead of trying to find an additional date in December, I decided that we would use the first part of this meeting to hear about the STP.

            You may also have seen news about a new working relationship between Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals Trust and Western Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. I’ve asked for a report on this to come to this meeting.

            We’ve also got a presentation on progress on the 3Ts development of the Royal Sussex County Hospital; an update on performance of the residential detoxification service since it was moved to London a few months’ ago; and Brighton & Hove Healthwatch will be presenting its annual report.

            Finally, I’d just like to remind everyone that this is a council committee meeting. Members of the public are always very welcome to come and observe, but this is not the place for a public debate about the STP or any other issue.

            We also had the first meeting of the joint HOSC working group on BSUH quality improvement this week, which I was unfortunately unable to attend. Trust representatives came to this meeting to explain what they are doing in response to the CQC inspection report and what the impact has been to date. There has been some progress, but there are still some very severe performance challenges. We are planning further meetings in the new year.

            Officers are in the process of setting up meetings with Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust as their latest CQC inspection report will be published soon. We are also sorting out dates for the joint HOSC working group looking at SECAmb’s quality improvement plans.

            Finally, we were due to visit the Royal Sussex County Hospital today. Unfortunately, due in no small part to illness, there just weren’t enough members available to justify a visit. We do appreciate that hospital staff have been working hard to set this up and we will definitely find another date to do this.”