Issue - meetings

To receive a presentation from the Mental Health Trust on the proposed closure of Downhills Ward.

Attending:

Maria Kane – Chief Executive

Lee Bojtor – Chief Operating Officer

Oliver Treacy – Service Director

Andrew Wright – Director of Strategic Development

PRESENTATION TO FOLLOW

The Panel received a presentation from the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust.

Key points noted:

·        Sincere apologies for the poor communication regarding Downhills Ward.

·        The Trust is committed to learn from mistakes made and is reviewing their communications policy.

·        ‘Changing for Good’ is an on-going initiative, which the MHT has had an on-going dialogue with Overview and Scrutiny about.

·        http://www.beh-mht.nhs.uk/changing-for-good.htm

·        Beds don’t necessarily equate to better care.

·        Patients spending too long on Wards isn’t always good for them and can make them go downhill again.

·        Some Wards across the MHT have consistently got empty beds.

·        There is therefore a point where there is a need to look at consolidation.  It was felt that this was the point reached in relation to Downhills Ward.

·        Downhills Ward has consistently had the poorest quality environment, a point which has also been raised by the Care Quality Commission.

·        Better stock will be available once St Ann’s is redeveloped.  However this is 2 ½ years away.

·        Options currently being considered are for the interim period in the lead up to the site redevelopment.  These options are:

o       Looking at whether we can adapt the wards at St Ann’s to allow mixed sex use – this would be very difficult and very expensive, given the wards will be replaced by 2015

o       Moving the assessment ward to Chase Farm and having separate male and female treatment wards at St Ann's in the interim – this would ease the travel difficulties for carers and other visitors of longer stay patients as only assessment patients would be affected

o       Combining assessment  and treatment beds on each of the remaining male and female wards – the preferred option

o       We are also looking at how we could provide additional support for carers of patients if temporarily accommodated at Chase Farm, e.g. a free regular shuttle bus between St Ann’s and Chase Farm

In response to questions from the Panel and other attendees the following points were noted:

·        The announced closure of Downhills Ward in September was felt to be an operational and service decision as it was part of wider discussions on the service model and was therefore taken by the Crisis and Emergency Line.

·        However, the Communication Policy was not followed in this case.

·        There are clinical safety considerations e.g. having to correct ratio of staff to patients – as capacity reduces any staff absence can have a bigger impact and therefore bigger clinical concerns.

·        It is estimated that changes would impact approximately 10 patients per month.

·        2 ½ years is a realistic time frame for the redevelopment of St Ann’s.

·        There was some confusion on the number of patients on Downhills Ward as of the date of the meeting.

·        There are no new admissions to Downhills Ward.  Any additional beds used where due to moving people around as opposed to admitting.

·        It would not be cost effective to keep Downhills Ward open for new admissions during the consultation as there were too many empty beds  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17