Issue - meetings

The Panel considered the report of the Chief Executive, University Hospital Southampton Foundation Trust, providing the Panel with an update on emergency flow at Southampton General Hospital.

Jane Hayward (Director of Transformation University Hospital Southampton) and Peter Horne (Director of System Delivery, NHS Southampton City CCG) were in attendance and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the meeting.

RESOLVED that

The Panel discussed a number of matters including:

·  The ongoing steps to improve performance and flow within the Emergency Department (ED), and the national initiative to introduce an on-site GP led service to support the ED;

·  The hospitals continued aim to reduce, where possible, the length of stay within the hospital for patients in order to free up space and enable a better flow from the ED into other areas of the hospital;

·  The pressure for the target to be reached by end of March 2018; 

·  The potential for a specialist Children’s Emergency Department.  The Panel noted that the Trust was still trying to raise funds for the facility and that no construction work had yet started; and

·  How the number of patients attending the ED was offset by an increase in the seriousness of the health conditions of those attending, linked in part to the increase in the number of old and frail people within the wider population.

RESOLVED that the Panel noted the performance information set out within the report and agreed to continue to monitor the performance of the Trust with regards to Emergency Flow in University Hospital Southampton.