The Council and democracy Health Scrutiny Committee's Investigations

​​​​​​​End of Year Summary 2018/19

End of Year Summary 2018/19

Over the previous 12 months the Health Scrutiny Committee has continued to examine how the Council and its partners in the NHS deliver health and social care services to improve the health and wellbeing of Manchester residents. 

Consideration has been given to a wide range of topics ranging from initiatives to improve patients accessing GP appointments, Diabetes care, Homecare, the Public Health Annual report, the work to improve the transition from young peoples to adult’s services and Mental Health Services.

The Committee has continued to monitor the implementation and impact on residents of the three strands of the Manchester Locality Plan. The three strands are - 

The Manchester Local Care Organisation Is a new public sector partnership that brings teams of health and care professionals together in local neighbourhoods. It also provides specialist services across the city that can support people in the community. Teams led by GPs bring together community nurses, social workers, mental health services, community organisations, as well as specialists such as therapists, pharmacists and health visitors.

Based in a central location in their 12 neighbourhoods, the teams pool the different skills, services and support needed to look after people outside hospital in a joined-up way. They are also building on the positive social and support networks and facilities that exist in our neighbourhoods, from
hobby and friendship groups, to parks and leisure facilities.

Single Commissioning Function Commissioning in health terms can be defined as the process by which the healthcare needs of the local population are identified and then appropriate services are purchased and evaluated based on these needs. The three Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups and Manchester City Council have established a single commissioning service for the City of Manchester from 1 April 2017. The new partnership is called Manchester Health and Care Commissioning (MHCC). Commissioners now act as one, enabled by a single pooled commissioning budget, to agree commissioning priorities for the city, and will contribute towards the closure of the funding gap through more efficient commissioning, and reducing costs associated with low impact activity and poor value for money.

Single Hospital Service The Single Hospital Service is the creation of a new Hospital Trust in Manchester, merging the existing three hospitals in the city. From 1 October 2017, following approval by NHS regulators, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CMFT) and University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (UHSM) merged to create a new organisation, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT). The aim of the new Trust is to improve the quality of care by standardising to best practice and improving efficiency by implementing single service models.
The Committee are aware that work continues to bring North Manchester General Hospital into the new Trust and the Committee are keen to see this delivered as soon as is practically and safely as possible and they will continue to closely monitor this as it progresses. 
 
The Committee recognises the importance of all of this important work and will continue to review the implementation of it to ensure the improved delivery of services in a community setting that will ultimately improve the health outcomes of all Manchester residents. 

The Committee had reviewed and commented on the draft Quality Accounts submitted by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, the comments from the Committee are presented to the Committee’s May meeting. All NHS healthcare providers must produce Quality Accounts as annual reports for members of the public, giving details about the quality of the services they provide. Health Scrutiny Committees are entitled to comment on draft Quality Accounts for each healthcare provider within their local authority area and these comments are included within the final published version. 
 
The Committee also received and endorsed the final report and recommendations of the Public Health Task and Finish Group that had been established to investigate specific areas of public health, namely smoking, alcohol, physical activity, public health and an ageing population and infection control. The Task and Finish Group held a number of meetings that had been supported and attended by a range of health professionals that had helped to inform the eight recommendations of the Group. The Committee will receive a progress report on how these recommendations are implemented in the new municipal year.

Throughout the year Members have welcomed the opportunity to hear from and question a variety of invited guests with specialist knowledge and expertise in a range of subject areas. In particular, the Committee was interested to hear from Dr Matt Evison, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust at their November meeting. He attended to discuss his involvement with the CURE programme, a service to prescribe medication to tackle patients’ addiction to tobacco and offer intensive support to help them stay smoke-free during their stay at hospital and once they go home and the lung cancer screening programme. The Committee thank all partners who had attended meetings over the course of the year for their invaluable contribution to the work of the Committee.

Get Involved

This includes what topics we will be looking at, what specific issues we will be considering and who we will be hearing from.  Please bear in mind that the programme is continually updated, and so dates and agenda items may change from those listed in the programme.

If there's an issue you want to contribute to, let us know.  You can either send a written contribution to scrutiny@manchester.gov.uk or you can attend a meeting and ask the Chair if you can speak.

If you want to speak to somebody about contributing to the committee, please call our scrutiny support officer on 0161 234 3038 or e mail scrutiny@manchester.gov.uk

The Role of the Committee

Councillor john farrell

Councillor John Farrell

Chair of the Health Scrutiny Committee

"As members of the Health Scrutiny Committee, we are dedicated to looking at how the Council and its partners in the NHS deliver health and social care services to improve the health and wellbeing of Manchester residents. We take a broad view of the health and social care services that are commissioned and provided by both the NHS and the Council so that we can make recommendations about how they can improve these services for you.

Our areas of interest include social care for adults, health inequalities, health services, the protection and safeguarding of adults in receipt of health and social care services, mental health and wellbeing, experiences and outcomes for patients, public health and healthy living.

Through this page you'll be able to keep in touch with what we've been doing, find out what we'll be investigating over the next few months and how you can get involved."

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