Issue - meetings

Making Better Use of Our Community Hospitals in Southampton

Meeting: 29/06/2017 - Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Item 5)

5 Making Better Use of Our Community Hospitals in Southampton pdf icon PDF 61 KB

Report of the Director, System Delivery - NHS Southampton Clinical Commissioning Group, informing the Panel of proposals to make better use of the land and buildings at the Royal South Hants Hospital and at the Western Community Hospital.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel considered the report of the Director, System Delivery - NHS Southampton Clinical Commissioning Group, informing the Panel of proposals to make better use of the land and buildings at the Royal South Hants Hospital and at the Western Community Hospital.

 

Peter Horne (Director of System Delivery, Southampton City Clinical Commissioning Group), Paul Benson (Senior Commissioner, Southampton City Clinical Commissioning Group) and Harry Dymond (Chair of Healthwatch Southampton) were in attendance and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the meeting.

 

The Panel noted the key drivers and intentions of the proposals to rationalise the use of land at the two sites.  It was explained that the project was essentially an exercise to consolidate and tidy up the estate of the local health service in order to:

·  Make better use of sites within the City;

·  Draw together key departments; and

·  Improve customer experience and clinical efficiency.

The process undertaken to develop the proposal to its current state was explained to the Panel.  It was noted that there were a number of factors that had been taken into consideration including:

·  a clinical need for an extra care facility and improve the efficiency of services offered by facilitating the movement of patients through to key departments;

·  a desire to enhance the potential offer to employees through the construction of key worker housing;

·  community concerns that would need to be overcome including parking difficulties and the public impression/perception of the disused and vacant Department of Psychiatry.  It was noted that a community use could be found for the Chapel building at the Royal South Hants site; and

·  the financial concerns.  It was noted that the proposals needed to be both practical and affordable.

It was noted that Healthwatch had been engaged within the early discussions and that at this stage the plans to reconfigure the clinical configuration of the two sites were being supported.

 

RESOLVED that the Panel noted the report and broadly supported the CCG’s direction of travel for the two sites.  It was recognised that this would be a challenging programme and requested that the Panel be kept informed as the programme develops.