Agenda and minutes

None.

None.

Minutes of the meeting of 11 October 2013 are attached for approval.

Further evidence had been provided by Adult Social Care and the Integrated Commissioning Unit in response to the presentation by the Sheltered Housing Manager; this was circulated but members wished to have more time to give consideration to this so it would be brought back to the next meeting.

Alison Croucher, the Sheltered Housing Manager, had further information regarding case studies that could be considered in more depth at the next meeting too.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 11 October were agreed as a correct record.

The following Portsmouth City Council officers will be present to speak to the panel regarding their services' involvement in hospital discharge arrangements:

i)              Karen Wigley - representing Occupational Therapists in PCC's Adult Social Care.

ii)             Nigel Baldwin - Accommodation Enabling Manager, Community Housing - to explain services provided on discharge such as Telecare, Disabled Facilities Grants and adaptations to private properties.

a)    Karen Wigley and Cathryn Francis - Role of PCC's Occupational Therapists (OTs)

A paper was circulated at the meeting regarding the role of the Council's OTs in the hospital discharge process.  It was reported that there are also OTs employed by Solent NHS Trust and by Hampshire Partnership Trust co-located at the hospitals.

There are currently 12.5 full time equivalent OTs in the Adult Social Care community fieldwork teams.  They operate on an open referral system for Portsmouth residents.  The backlog/waiting list is being addressed. 

Out of City Hospital Discharges - Clients also discharge from hospitals outside Portsmouth.  Salisbury and Stoke Mandeville hospitals deal with very traumatic injuries, the latter being specialists for spinal injury - requiring long stays in hospital for life-changing conditions, which may further require changes to the home accommodation. 

Comprehensive multi-agency working is needed to facilitate safe and timely hospital discharge.

Possible obstacles to timely discharge from outside of the city are:

·         Distance between out of city hospital and residents home

·         Previous private rental accommodation is not suitable for a wheelchair user or person with impaired mobility  and client is essentially homeless

·         Poor communication between hospital and community team

·         Major adaptations are required to property

·         Bespoke specialist equipment is required for discharge

·         Delay in wheelchair provision

·         Changing financial circumstances

·         Limited suitable wheelchair accommodation available in the city

·         Appropriate psychological support  unavailable on discharge

Portsmouth Discharges - Most of the above can also be applicable to discharges from Portsmouth hospitals.  There are variations of OT input; medical discharges should be referred through the Portsmouth Rehabilitation and Reablement Team (PRRT) team who have a number of resources available to support discharges and provide ongoing rehabilitation such as the Grove Unit and Victory Unit. F1, surgical and orthopaedic ward based staff should refer to Hampshire Partnership Trust OTs to plan discharge, Spinnaker ward should refer to Solent NHS OTs. The key to all discharges is timely referrals and good communication.

Accommodation Resources Available

Some discharges will require major adaptions and it was reported that there is limited wheelchair specific accommodation in the city.  PCC has 6 rehab flats in the city, only one of which, Arundel Street, is fully adapted for a full time wheelchair user. Clients are supposed to use the flats for a maximum of 12 weeks to continue their rehabilitation and confirm their housing requirements following discharge from hospital. All are continually used, and there are usually used for a maximum 12 week period. A major obstacle to their effective use is the lack of suitable wheelchair accommodation for the client to move on to, leading to "blocking". Due to the economic climate there has been a lull in the number of new builds and this has impacted on the building of disabled persons units. There has been no new one bed Disabled Persons' Units (DPUs) completed this year although some are due for completion in 2014. Their colleague Karen Grose is involved in the designing of wheelchair adaptations on new build sites, such  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

Members are asked to bring along diaries to set date(s) for future meeting(s)

A provisional date of 12^th December at 10am was raised but was dependent upon the availability of the main witness for the meeting, Elaine Bastable to talk about Housing Allocations.   Subsequently this date was changed to 11^th December at 1.30pm to enable the witness to attend.  The extra evidence circulated, as referred to in minute 43, would also be considered at that meeting.