Agenda item

Attendance by Chair, Jan Williams and Chief Executive, Abigail Harris.

The Mayor welcomed to Council the Chief Executive of Swansea Bay Health Board Abigail Harris along with the Chair Jan Williams who gave a presentation.

J. Williams thanked Council for the invitation and highlighted the importance of partnership between the Council and the Health Board. Special thanks were given to Andrew Jarrett Director of Social Services Health and Housing.

Saliant points raised from the presentation include challenges faced over the next 3 years, and how these challenges will be faced. Areas highlighted included the number of children living in poverty, the healthy age gap which stands at around 20 years for women and 15 years for men.

The Health Boards vision and mission was mentioned along with a recommendation from Audit Wales in terms of the vision and mission strategy.

A.Harris went on to talk about the strategic objectives and how they would be articulated, namely being a great place to work engaging with the workforce, digital services and financial challenges. Council were told it is expected to take 3 years to find financial balance.

Priorities was discussed including mental health and wellbeing, smoking, diabetes and emergency care along with cancer patients. Vaccinations was touched upon with the need for prevention highlighted.

An improvement dashboard was included within the presentation. Several points were outlined including a winter care plan and planned care with a graph showing a decline.

Further discussions included a maternity and neonatal improvement programme and independent review where Council was told this area had been given more time to review how the services benefit women.

Following the presentation Members of Council went on to ask the following questions and comments.

The Chair of Social Services Health and Housing Scrutiny Committee went on to invite the Chief Executive and Chair of Swansea Health Board to a future meeting to discuss topics such as mental health, neurodiversity and hospital to home. This invite was welcomed by both. The Chief Executive and Chair went on to outline the feedback from the Llias report that members raised stating a new officer would be taking on the role to combat any issues relating to feedback and patient concerns.

Members mentioned prevention being a priority especially in cases of GP appointments and hospital admissions. The Chief Executive of Swansea Bay went on to state access is an ongoing issue within some GP practices and is something they are looking to address and hopefully improve with the inclusion of digital access as a way forward. Members were also told that there is a primary care cluster team reviewing access to GP appointments. Further information on individual practices within Neath Port Talbot would be made available.

Members further asked why have specific hospitals in South Wales lost valuable staff. Members were told that a staff survey had been undertaken but the response rate was low which is something the Health Board is working on to encourage staff to participate in the survey.

Restrictions on cross boundary GP Practices and ambulance waiting times was raised by members with the Health Board responding to say that recruitment and retention was high on the agenda. The Health Board went on to state that the sector was reliant on good working partnerships specifically in terms of primary and secondary care.

The Leader expressed his thanks to the Chief Executive and Chair of Swansea Bay Health Board for their attendance at today’s Council. The Leader went on to say that prevention, intervention and partnership were key elements in going forward.