Agenda item

Councillor Chris Leaman, Chair of the Brent Health Select Committee has asked Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) to provide a report for the committee on the plans to reconfigure services provided at Belvedere Day Hospital. This followed an approach to Councillor Leaman from service users concerned at the plans for the day hospital. CNWL has provided an overview of their proposals for Belvedere House, as well as setting out the context for the proposed changes (see appendix 1).

The committee agreed to take this item first. 

Robyn Doran (Director of Operations, CNWL) introduced a report on the reconfiguration of services at Belvedere Day Hospital. She informed the committee that in recent years there had been an increasing focus on the modernisation of day hospital provision and that the national agenda had resulted in the focus of services moving away from being ‘building based’ to providing a model of community based support.  She advised that any service development at Belvedere Day Hospital would need to support the national modernisation agenda. Robyn Doran explained that CNWL had not yet reached the stage of formal consultation and that so far only initial discussions had taken place with the service users of Belvedere Day Hospital.  She advised that the question and answer leaflet, which was referred to by Maurice Hoffman, had been used as a starting point to these initial discussions with service users and that CNWL were planning to carry out more formal consultation. 

Robyn Doran stated that the report, which had been circulated, put forward one potential model for service reconfiguration and that no decision had been made.  Natalie Fox (Service Director for Older Adults Directorate, CNWL) explained that the potential model was a conceptual idea based on the modernisation agenda and that the model was not about providing a smaller number of services, but was about moving services into the community.  She stressed that CNWL were not suggesting that Belvedere Day Hospital be closed.  Robyn Doran advised that there were no plans to transfer responsibility from the health service to the local authority or voluntary sector agencies.  Susan Drayton (Admiral Nurse, CNWL) advised that it would be the same members of staff providing the services.

The committee heard from Dr Robin Powell who was a consultant at the Belvedere Day Hospital. He stated that Belvedere Day Hospital had gone beyond its optimal usefulness and no longer functioned as it was originally intended to. The idea, he explained, was to get patients off the ward and back into the community, but that this was not happening effectively.  There was also a need, he explained, to reduce the amount of time which service users were spending on travelling to the hospital.  He added that there was a need to look at this resource and whether it could be used more effectively.

Martin Cheeseman (Director of Housing and Community Care) explained that what had been set out in the report by CNWL regarding modernisation was part of a common national agenda to modernise adult services.  He stressed the need for consultation, which would take into account the views of all the service users at Belvedere Day Hospital. He explained that the council would be involved in the consultation process. He advised that he had been given categorical assurances from CNWL that the intention was not to move costs from the health service to the local authority. 

The committee also stressed the need for genuine consultation and the importance of ensuring that service users’ views be taken account of.   Following a request from the committee, Robyn Doran, stated that CNWL would produce a consultation plan in time for the next Health Select Committee for the committee to consider.  She added that a report, which considered all the different options, would be presented to the Health Select Committee for discussion, once the consultation had been completed in the autumn.  Following a request from the Chair, Robyn Doran stated that the report would consider the viability of keeping services running as they were currently doing so, as one of the options.  She added that no changes to the services provided at Belvedere Day Hospital would be made until the plans had been agreed.

RESOLVED:

i)             that a consultation plan on the reconfiguration of services at Belvedere Day Hospital be produced by CNWL in time for the next Health Select Committee meeting.

ii)            that, following the consultation, a report which examines all the possible options for the reconfiguration of services at Belvedere Day Hospital be presented to the Health Select Committee for discussion in the Autumn.