Agenda and minutes

There were apologies for absence received from Councillors P M Brivio, T A Bond and N Dixon.

It was noted that, in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 4, Councillor S F Bannister was appointed as substitute member for Councillor P M Brivio.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members in respect of business to be transacted on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 4 July 2018, 12 September 2018 and 3 October 2018 (to follow).

The Minutes of the meetings held on 4 July 2018, 12 September 2018 and 3 October 2018 were deferred.

Please note that in accordance with the agreed Protocol for Public Speaking at Overview and Scrutiny, the right to speak does not apply to any items on the agenda.

The right of the public to speak does not apply to the following agenda items: Apologies, Appointment of Substitute Members, Declarations of Interest, Minutes, the Forward Plan, the Scrutiny Work Programme, any agenda item that is not accompanied by a written report and items that are exempt business.

The Democratic Services Manager advised that there were members of the public in attendance who had registered to speak on items on the agenda to which the public speaking protocol applied.

The following decisions were taken by the Cabinet at its meeting held on 5 November 2018in respect of recommendations from the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee:

·         Redevelopment of William Muge and Snelgrove House Sites

There were no items of business to consider.

There were no items for consideration.

(a)    Items placed on the agenda by a Member of the Committee or any individual Non-Executive Member

       Any individual Councillor may request that a matter is placed on the agenda of one of the Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committees.

       There are no items for consideration.

(b)    Call-In

       Executive Decisions may be called-in by the Chairman or Spokesperson of the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee or any three non-executive members. Call-Ins are heard by the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee unless it decides to refer the matter to the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee.

       There are no items for consideration.

(c)    Public Petitions

       There are no items for consideration.     

There were no items for consideration.

The Democratic Services Manager presented the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions to the Committee for its consideration. Members identified the inclusion of the following items from the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions within the work programme:

·      Item No. 38 (Purchase of affordable housing in Aylesham)

·      Item No. 43 (Redevelopment and regeneration of the site of the former Co-Op Store in Stembrook and surrounding area)

RESOLVED:   That the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions be noted.

The Democratic Services Manager presented the Scrutiny Work Programme to the Committee for its consideration. Members were reminded to provide their key questions for the Private Sector Landlords meeting in December.

RESOLVED:     That the Work Programme be noted subject to the inclusion of the additional items identified in Minute No. 54.

To consider the responses to the committees key questions from representatives from the South Kent Coast Clinical Commissioning Group and the East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust.

The Committee had invited the South Kent Coast Clinial Commissiong Group (SKC CCG) and East Kent Hopsitals University Foundation Trust (EKHUFT) to their meeting to answer key questions on Local Health Services.  Karen Benbow - Chief Operations Officer (SKC CCG); Una Windebank – Director of Local Care (East Kent CCG); and Susan Acott – Chief Executive (EKHUFT) were in attendance to present the answers to Members’ questions.

GP Services and Provision

Q1.    In the light of the memorandum (‘Extra appointments now available in South Kent Coast’) about ‘extra appointments’ it says the GP is the first point of contact. What happens if the GP has closed?

Response provided by South Kent Coast Clinical Commissioning Group

South Kent Coast CCG has established four Primary Care Minor Illness Hubs. A patient can access their local hub by contacting their GP Surgery when open who will help identify if the patient has a minor illness that is appropriate to be seen within a hub, if so the patient will receive a same day appointment.

There has been no change to the arrangement of patients requiring out of hours support when their GP surgery is closed. They will be signposted to or contact directly the local 111 service. Currently the CCG is working with South East Health Ltd to develop a system of direct booking by 111 into the Primary Care Minor Illness Hubs.

The Minor Illness Hubs were located in Deal, Buckland and Royal Victoria Hospitals as well as Romney Marsh Day Centre and were open Monday – Friday 8am – 8pm and Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Q2.    With the closure of the Eastry GP surgery and the merger of two Dover GP surgeries, how viable is it to maintain the idea of moving services from hospital settings to GP surgeries?

Response provided by South Kent Coast Clinical Commissioning Group

Eastry GP surgery is a branch surgery of Market Place surgery in Sandwich. Canterbury and Coastal CCG considered the application to close the branch surgery and took into account the feedback from a number of patient engagement events and how best to retain services generally for the entire practice including the GPs.

After due diligence the CCG approved the application and the plan is to consolidate services onto the main site at Sandwich. The CCG recognises the challenges primary care are facing and supports practices working more closely at scale to both retain existing workforce whilst planning to remain resilient as demand increases.

Councillor P Carter expressed concern that there did not appear to be additional parking provision following the merger at the Sandwich Surgery. Patients with disabilities would have difficulties finding appropriate parking or face difficulties using public transport. Councillor Manion added that the parish council had provided Eastry residents with access to Thanet Community Transport who could transport patients to and from the surgery at arranged times.

Councillor P Carter would be provided with the contact details of someone best placed to discuss his concerns.

Q3.    Could you explain why it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.