A POOLE HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST BOARD OF DIRECTORS Part 1 Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Directors of Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust held at 9.00 am on Wednesday 29 February 2012 in the Board Room, Poole Hospital. Present: Mrs Angela Schofield Chairman Mr Chris Bown Chief Executive Mr Gareth Corser Director of Strategy & Business Development Mrs Jean Lang Non-Executive Director Mr Michael Mitchell Non-Executive Director Dame Yvonne Moores Non-Executive Director (Vice Chair) Mr Guy Spencer Non-Executive Director Mrs Mary Sherry Chief Operating Officer Mr Martin Smits Director of Nursing & Patient Services Mrs Sarah-Jane Taylor Director of HR and Organisational Development Mr Robert Talbot Medical Director Mr Paul Turner Director of Finance, Information & Estates Mr Nick Ziebland Non-Executive Director In Attendance: Mr Michael Beswick Mrs Anita Bonham Company Secretary Secretary The Chairman welcomed the governors, staff and members of the public t the meeting. A special welcome was given to the two doctors from the Wau Hospital who was on a six week clinical placement. A presentation on the hospital at Wau was to be given by the staff that have previously visited Wau and the two doctors on the evening of 14 March 2012, to which all were welcome. PHFT 048/12 Apologies for Absence Apologies received from Mr Marshall. PHFT 049/12 Declarations of Interest It was noted that the Board of Directors could potentially have an interest in any item related to merger. PHFT 050/12 Part 1 Minutes of the Board Meeting held on 25 January 2012 (Paper A) The minutes were AGREED as a correct record of the meeting. 1
PHFT 051/12 Matters Arising Action List (Paper B) 007/12 Mr Bown reported that the NHS South of England joint venture for education and training was work in progress and a presentation would be made at a future Board Seminar. 007/12 Mr Turner reported that the business case for capital development of St Marys was on today s private Board agenda. It was noted and was agreed all matters arising unless the subject of this or future Board of Directors agendas have been executed. PHFT 052/12 Chairman s Report The Chairman reported on the following: The public consultation on the governance arrangements of the proposed new organisation was underway with a closing date of 25 April 2012. There had been a Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) inspection in February which the Chairman thanked all involved. Mr Smits noted that the results would be available in April. The Board were to sample the patient meals today as part of their seminar. PHFT 053/12 Chief Executive s Report Mr Bown presented his report and noted the following: The public consultation on the proposed merger was supported by meetings with the public and local authority scrutiny committees. Discussions had taken place with lawyers in regards to the process the Trust s were now having to undertaken with the Office of Fair Trading to progress merger work, the consequence of which may require the planning timetable to be extended. For the production of the Annual Plan, the budgets would be submitted to Board in March and the full Annual Plan would be submitted to Monitor by the end of May 2012. The work regarding university status was now being undertaken jointly with Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (RBCH) due to the merger discussions. The results of the national outpatient survey had been published and the Trust was in the top performing 20%. PHFT 054/12 Merger Update Mr Bown and Mr Corser presented to the Board the video and slide presentations currently being used at the public meetings regarding the consultation. 2
Mr Corser responded to the question from Mr Spencer regarding the response rate noting that there had been varying levels of attendance at the public meetings and some written responses received thus far. Mr Corser confirmed that word university in the title of the new organisation could be used if the application had been completed and granted by the time of submission to Monitor. Mrs Lang reported that the wording on the BBC website regarding clinical services required review for accuracy. ACTION: JF/GC The Chairman expressed her thanks on behalf of the Board to all of the executive directors for their positive commitment and for all of the extra work they were undertaking. PHFT 055/12 CQC Update Mr Smits noted that there had been as yet no further feedback from the response the Trust had made to the outcomes of the inspection. Mr Smits noted that the action plan to address the concerns of the CQC had been shared with the Quality, Performance and Safety Committee and the Hospital Executive Group and it was hoped that the actions would be achieved within six months. PHFT 056/12 Summary of Complaints (Paper D) Mr Talbot presented the report and noted the importance of the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) in reducing the formal number of complaints received by the Trust. Mr Talbot also noted that organisational learning was very important and he continues working with his colleagues to ensure the care the Trust provides benefits from these learning processes. Dame Yvonne Moores noted the worsening situation with regards to patient property. Mr Smits responded that the Trust was currently working with LINKs to assist in this area to improve the situation. The Chairman noted that the actions from the annual review had all been addressed. PHFT 057/12 Chairman s Report of the Finance and Investment Committees held on 27 February 2012 Mr Mitchell reported that the committee had scrutinised the financial results for month ten, the service line results for month nine and performance was on track to achieve the planned surplus of 0.2m. Contract negotiations which would inform the financial plan for 2012/13 were going well, however expenditure costs were still an issue. 3
Mr Mitchell also noted that the committee had scrutinised all of the business cases that were to be presented to the Board in the private agenda. The Chairman noted that the business cases were being presented on the private agenda due to commercial information contained therein not being available prior to any tender for services. A summary was provided on the business cases to be presented: upgrades to the Radiotherapy Services; upgrades to St Marys, Maternity Unit; and provision of facilities for private patients. PHFT 058/12 Chairman s Report of the Workforce Committee held on 27 February 2012 Mr Spencer reported that the Whistle Blowing Policy had been provided to the group and it would be included as an agenda item at the next meeting. Mr Spencer also noted that the committee had been updated on workforce and that the Clinical Divisional Director for surgery had attended the meeting to discuss the proactive management of staff sickness and turnover within the division. Mr Spencer noted that he was to have meetings with executives and senior members of staff on behalf of the committee with regards to the resource and process for staff communication regarding the merger and how the Board could support the equality and diversity agenda for the Trust. PHFT 059/12 2012/13 Budget Setting Update Mr Turner noted that the Annual Plan was to be submitted to Monitor by 31 May 2012 however the key elements of the plan would be discussed and agreed by the Board in March. The challenge over the following weeks was the production of the Cost Improvement Plan (CIP) and discussions regarding the developments that the directorates wished to take forward. PHFT 060/12 Integrated Trust Performance Report (Paper E) Mr Turner, Mrs Sherry, Mr Smits and Mrs Taylor presented the report and highlighted key areas. Detailed discussion took place particularly in regard to: The financial position at month ten which remained in line with the plan, and the overview for 2012/13. All performance targets for January and December had been met and it was noted that January and February had been difficult months due 4
to viruses, closed wards and limiting visitor access to the hospital. Staff were commended in their achievements during this difficult period. In January and February the stroke unit had to be closed due to norovirus and this would have an impact on the stoke target. Mrs Sherry was in discussions with her counterpart at RBCH regarding transfers for angiography patients where there were currently capacity issues. The Integrated Performance Report was discussed in detail. The Chairman expressed her thanks for the detailed performance report which she commended as very informative for the Board and the public. Mrs Sherry noted that the report would include further trend analysis and detail for April including an update on emergency preparedness with regards to the Olympics in the near future. ACTION: MSy PHFT 061/12 Board Development Action Plan (Paper F) Mr Beswick introduced the report and Mr Bown, Mr Turner and Mrs Taylor gave updates to the action plan. Further updates were to be presented in April in regards to developing capability, the buddying policy and knowledge sharing. ACTION: CB/SJT/IM PHFT 062/12 Changes to the Constitution (Paper G) Mr Beswick presented his report on the proposed changes to the Constitution in line with the mandatory third year review. Mr Beswick noted that it had been agreed that should the Trust achieve university status a change of the organisations name via the Constitution would not be undertaken due to the merger process. The report was SUPPORTED. PHFT 063/12 Trust Board Seminar The Chairman reported that the items for consideration at the Board Seminar would be; Board skill mix for the new organisation which would then be discussed jointly with RBCH. PHFT 064/12 Questions from the Council of Governors The Chairman noted there had been multiple questions from two governors. The first was in regards to back log maintenance and the deviation of the value of the estate compared to last year and the second was regarding 12 hour shifts, staff sickness, incidents of sore hands and the effects of the reduced visiting. Mr Turner responded that the value of the estate would form part of the Trust s Annual Plan which would be presented to the Board in May and that 5
the backlog maintenance was formally calculated once a year the last being July 2011 at 6.2m, this had shown a rise of 1.5m due to the freeze on capital expenditure. Mr Smits responded to the second set of questions noting: that there had been no evidence in changes of morale or sickness due to the new 12 hours shifts. Sickness had reduced since implementation. However there was no link and staff views were mixed in regards to the shifts. The majority are in support. Sore hands had recently received a greater emphasis for reporting. There are two main factors to sore hands, poor technique staff not utilising moisturisers and underlining clinical problems such as allergy. Monitoring the effects of the reduced visiting would be considered by looking at comments received by PALS. To date there were very few in regards to the restrictions and the local media had portrayed the decisions very positively. A full written response would be provided to the governors. ACTION: AB/PT/MSm PHFT 065/12 Any Other Business 1 Governance Cycle It was AGREED that the governance cycle be amended to include regular updates from the Workforce Committee. ACTION: AB 2 Compliment Letter Mr Smits quoted parts of a letter on compliment from the daughter of a patient that had died within the elderly care wards. The letter gave a flavour of the care and dignity afforded experienced by patients. PHFT 066/12 Date and Time of Next Meeting Board meeting to take place on Wednesday 28 March 2012 at 9.00am in the Board Room. PHFT 067/12 Withdrawal of Press and Public The Chairman moved that any members of the public and representatives of the press should withdraw from the meeting. Signed by Chairman as an accurate record of the meeting: Date: 6