Agenda item

(A period not exceeding 15 minutes for questions from members of the public.)

In addressing the Board, Councillor Mark Houlbrook explained that he was attending today’s meeting in support of his constituent Mrs Valerie Wood, whose husband suffered from MND.  Cllr Houlbrook stressed that by signing up to the MND Charter, partner organisations would help to send a powerful message that MND sufferers and their carers were being supported.  It would also assist in raising awareness of the disease and contribute towards improving the quality of life of those affected.  Cllr Houlbrook concluded by thanking Dr Rupert Suckling and Cllr Rachael Blake for listening to the people of Doncaster and supporting this cause.  He also thanked Mrs Wood for all her hard work and persistence in furthering this campaign.

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Mrs Valerie Wood explained that she had attended and addressed a meeting of this Board 3 years ago to raise awareness of MND and ask that the organisations represented on the HWB agree to sign up to the MND Charter.  However, following the meeting she had felt let down by the lack of action taken by the various partners.

Mrs Wood continued by outlining her experiences as wife and carer to her husband, who had been diagnosed with MND 5 years ago.  She referred to the MND information packs she had brought to the meeting, copies of which were tabled for Members’ consideration.  In particular, she drew attention to the ‘Red Flag’ card which was aimed at assisting GPs to diagnose the condition.  She explained that mis-diagnosis was a problem in some cases, and in the past, there had also been issues regarding the condition being flagged up on her husband’s medical records when seeing other GPs.  Mrs Wood felt that this highlighted that there were still weaknesses in terms of GPs flagging up chronic illnesses on patients’ records and, more generally, with communication about the specific needs of individual patients.  On the latter point, Mrs Wood gave an example where her husband’s physical ability had been over-estimated by hospital staff to the point where he had become exhausted, and she explained that this incident could have been avoided had the staff consulted with her as carer to her husband, as she was fully aware of his physical needs.

Mrs Wood advised that her husband had taken part in the first human trials of a new drug treatment for MND, and fortunately this did appear to be working. 

Mrs Wood concluded by welcoming the recent announcement that Doncaster Council was to sign up to the MND Charter, and she expressed the hope that all of the partners around the table would now follow suit.

Discussion followed, during which Dr David Crichton spoke in support of the MND Charter, particularly in terms of raising awareness of MND amongst GPs.  He confirmed that the CCG  would ensure that the points set out in the Charter were considered in all of our services.

Richard Parker stated that he was sorry to hear of Mrs Woods’ and her husband’s experiences in hospital and offered to meet with her to discuss these issues outside the meeting.  He stressed that this highlighted the need for a personal care plan approach for patients.

Having thanked Mrs Wood for attending today’s meeting, the Chair stated that it was important to maintain a scrutiny element with matters such as this, so she asked that this issue be brought back to the Board in 6 months’ time in order to monitor implementation amongst the partner organisations.

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Councillor Derek Smith stated that he wished to put a question to the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  He referred to the recent awarding of a new catering contract by the Trust to Sodexo and stated that he was disappointed to see this work being outsourced to an external provider and not kept in-house.  He stated that he was concerned that under the new contract, the 20% discount for hospital staff had been discontinued.  He felt this was unfair for staff who had been working hard under increasing pressures and endured years of pay gaps and also had to pay car park charges.  He questioned why it had not been possible to safeguard the staff discount, when the same company had maintained similar discounts in other parts of the country.  He felt that this move would have an adverse impact on staff morale.

In response, Richard Parker outlined the background to the awarding of the contract, explaining that whilst a range of options including in-house provision had been considered, the 10 year contract with Sodexo had offered the best value for money.  He explained that the new contract would offer an improved service with better quality and choice.  For example, patients would be able to select their choice of meal on the same day instead of having to make their menu selections the day before.  Richard confirmed that the Sodexo contract would offer staff a loyalty system which would equate to more than the previous 20% discount in relative terms.  In light of the fact that the new loyalty scheme had not been available to staff in the initial weeks of the new contract, measures had been taken to ensure that staff did not miss out in the intervening period.  He added that, as before, the lowest paid staff would still be entitled to a heavily discounted meal with the new service.  In addition, the terms of the contract prohibited Sodexo from increasing prices without prior consultation with the Trust, and regular monitoring of service standards under the contract would be carried out.

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In addressing the Board, Mr Tim Brown stated that he had been calling for a BME Health Needs Assessment (HNA) for years.  However, he feared that the recommendations in the HNA would just be ‘kicked into the long grass’.

Mr Brown then referred to the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report, in which he stated that “the best predictor of good health is having a good job”.  He stated that a FOI response sent to him suggested that BME candidates across DMBC are still over 2 times less likely to be appointed after shortlisting than white candidates who were shortlisted.  As a parent, he could not understand this position, and he felt it was incumbent upon local authorities and other organisations to address such racial disparities.

Mr Brown concluded by referring to the 70^th anniversaries this year of both the NHS and the arrival of the ship SS Empire Windrush to this country and asked how the partner organisations would be marking these events.

In reply, the Chair gave Mr Brown an assurance that the recommendations arising from the BME HNA would not be kicked into the long grass, and she stated that the partners around the table had taken all of his comments on board.