Tonight you could tell an election was in the air as Cllr Green joked with Cllr Clarke over leaflet deliveries, a sense of de ja vu as Cllr Kelly returns to the Cabinet and some surreal humour about dreams as well as a good smattering that has at times been missing from previous (sometimes lengthy) Cabinet meetings.
Declarations of Interests:-
Cllr Elderton declared a personal and prejudicial interest in item 26. Cllr Lewis declared a personal interest in item 27 as a resident of New Brighton. Cllr Green declared an interest as a hospital governor.
The Cabinet then received a short presentation from Mr. Richards regarding the opportunities and challenges for Wirral University Teaching Hospital. He drew on his more than 5 years experience as Chief Exec and described what the Wirral Excellence in Healthcare System regarding patient centred changed was, their IT system Wirral Millennium and detail about electronic health records. He talked about collaboration with the Countess of Chester hospital and the use of the various sites – St. Catherines, Victoria Central Hospital, GPs and local authority premises.
He then went on to talk about the challenges facing the NHS ranging from length of stay and Social services, re-admissions, infection control, the patient experience and specialisation. He explained the challenges they face from their regulators Monitor and the Care Quality Commission (who carry out unannounced visits). On the financial side he explained how they aim to make savings of £42 million over the next 3 years and the effect that the GP consortia and Health & Wellbeing Board will have.