Agenda item - Chair's Communications

39.1    The Chair gave the following communications:

I have called a special meeting of the HOSC today to look at NHS England plans to make changes to specialist cancer services for children.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to wait until the scheduled April meeting for this item. The formal scrutiny of regional change plans needs to be via a Joint HOSC, and for Brighton & Hove the final decision as to whether to join a Joint HOSC is resolved for full Council – we needed to schedule this meeting to potentially feed into 30 March full Council or we would have needed to wait until Annual Council on 25 May, which would have been a significant delay.

I apologise for the inconvenience and appreciate those who have been able to attend today.  I think if it hadn’t been for the school strike, we would have had several more with us today.

I also want to be clear about the purpose of today’s meeting. Today’s meeting is for HOSC members to decide whether they think these plans are of sufficient local importance that the represent a ‘substantial service variation’ for our residents, and that the city council should therefor join a Joint HOSC.

We do have colleagues from NHS England here today; I will ask them to present on their plans, and they will be available to answer questions. However, in-depth scrutiny of these plans, and questions about which provider offers the best option, are really matters that are reserved for a Joint HOSC. Therefore, please ask questions that will help you come to a view about a substantial variation of service and the needs of our local population affected, rather than the commissioning decision itself.

If the committee agree the recommendation today, then we will link up with other HOSCs across the region which have expressed an interest in scrutinising the plans. We don’t yet know definitively which HOSCs this may be involve, although we do know that several have decided not to formally scrutinise this issue. If we decide not to take part in the joint HOSC, then NHSE will keep us updated on the progress of the plans, but we won’t be formally involved in any scrutiny. I do need to be clear that the options are for formal scrutiny via a Joint HOSC or for no formal scrutiny. Under health scrutiny legislation we do not have the option to formally scrutinise regional change plans as individual HOSCs.

My personal view is that, although the number of children involved are small, the nature of these serious cancers mean that the whole family is heavily affected. The illness and care pathway can lead to life changing consequences for the siblings, parents and extended family, as well as the child with cancer. My personal view is that this therefore represents a substantial variation of service, which we should scrutinise for our B&H residents affected. It is of course up to the committee this morning to decide if they agree.

There is an additional factor that influenced me in coming to the view that we should take part in joint HOSC. As we now have much larger ICPs across the southeast there are likely to be many more service changes that cross local authority borders. As BHCC has not taken part in a joint HOSC for more than a decade, this will be an opportunity for the new HOSC chair and committee to learn about the process and make link with other HOSCs across the region. This should stand us in good stead when much larger service changes are proposed in the future.

Finally, I would like to add in the interests of openness, that on the request of St Georges University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust I met their chair and some senior clinicians last week. I was briefed about their service and their views on future service models. This was an informal meeting and did not influence my view that we should take part in the JOSC. And if we do decide to proceed, I will of course offer the same opportunity to meet Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in order to be fully briefed by all parties prior to formal scrutiny at the joint HOSC.