Agenda item

8.1

The Committee received a report of the Director of Nursing and Clinical Operations, Sheffield Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which presented a draft of the Trust’s Quality Report 2015.  The report was introduced by John Reid, Director of Nursing and Clinical Operations, Sheffield Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, who made particular reference to the installation of a new computer system, the Care Quality Commission visit in 2014 and the building work which was taking place at the Children’s Hospital.

8.2

Members made various comments and asked a number of questions, to which responses were provided as follows:-

·                In relation to the implementation of the recommendations from the Mid Staffordshire Public Inquiry, meetings were held with ward managers every six months and a tool had been developed to assess the number of interventions per child, so that the number of nurses required could be predicted.  In addition, a quality dashboard had been placed on the Trust’s website.

·                A nutritional strategy was being developed, but this was difficult with children, mainly because of their short stays in hospital.  They were given a visual choice and new trolleys had been introduced since the Task and Finish Group had investigated this issue.  In addition, breastfeeding facilities had been provided.

·                There were some IT issues involved in the electronic discharge process, with the Trust wishing to send this information by email to GPs, whilst they wished to have it put straight into their databases.

·                It should be noted that families’ satisfaction with the Children’s Hospital had not suffered as a result of the building works, which was to be commended given the scale of the works.

·                The presented Quality Report was a summary document, with hyperlinks being included to enable access to more detail.

·                Current issues related to violence and aggression, which it was thought arose due to the Children’s Hospital having a significant Mental Health Unit, and children’s medication, which took many different forms, thus increasing the potential for error.  With regard to the latter, a prescribing software application was awaiting approval.

8.3

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       thanks John Reid for his contribution to the meeting;

(b)       notes the contents of the report and the responses to questions;

(c)        notes that the Committee’s response to the report, based on the Committee’s discussions, would be drafted by the Policy and Improvement Officer; and

(d)       requests that the Trust’s report on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, which was to be presented to the Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group in May 2015, be circulated to the Committee, and it was hoped that this would generate a collective response across providers and commissioners to improve current services.