Agenda item

(a) H&SCP Delivery Report. 

4.1 Mrs Karen Hamilton commented that the meeting had become inquorate from item 12 in the meeting. She asked the Board to consider if any items from that point in that meeting were affected by being inquorate.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD agreed that there was no impact on the further items discussed.

4.2 Minute 9: Mr Chris Myers advised the Mr David Robertson, Chief Executive, Scottish Borders Council (SBC) had written to COSLA in regard to the lack of provision for out of area placements.

4.3 Minute 8: Mr Myers commented that significant capacity had been brought into the system and although Delayed Discharges were currently sitting at 72, it was ahead of predictions in the surge plan, reflecting the level of work taking place.

4.4 Mrs Fiona Sanford complimented the improvement, but drew attention to the number of current delayed discharges in the system and asked the meeting if the discussion around that subject could continue.

4.5 Discussion then focused on: the challenges and causes of delayed discharges; financial pressures; rurality; patient’s individual wishes; family expectations; care home availability and capacity; impact of care home policy and criteria for eligible patients; feedback from the whole system operation pressures group that the IJB were carrying out the correct actions but the volume of delayed discharges meant visibility of results was taking longer to achieve; workforce challenges permeating throughout the health and social care system; an approach to the Scottish Government to consider a ‘rural weighting’ for the Scottish Borders, which would allow an uplift in pay for health care workers; the quality and relevance of data being used; public engagement feedback; and a recent advert for 20 vacancies had attracted over 100 applicants which appeared to suggest an anomaly with recruitment issues and available people to employ.

4.6 Dr Lynn McCallum noted that at the centre of all discussions was the patient and most delayed discharge patients wanted to be at home, but many were frail and needed care packages in place to support them to return home. Delays in arranging packages often extended hospital stays.

4.7 Dr Rachel Mollart suggested that the message about the lack of social care beds appeared to be more widely known by the public and she acknowledged that there were budget constraints to be worked too. She also commented that GPs priorities were the patients who were medically sick.

4.8 Mrs Jen Holland commented that limiting factors, such as staffing, finance and increasing demand remained key challenges. She suggested there needed to be Page 3 of 7 more focus on what was bringing people into hospital, looking at the reablement process, faster decision making in hospital and putting resource in the right places to provide the support needed for the people of the Borders.

4.9 Cllr Thornton-Nicol suggested the partner bodies of the IJB should commit to working even closer together to resolve the issues of delayed discharges and to look to preventing patients arriving at the front door of the hospital.

4.10 Minute 12: Mr Myers commented that Miller House, along with Eildon Housing, Cargorm and the IJB had won a national partnership award.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD noted that there were no live actions on the action tracker.