Committee congratulates hospital chief on improvements

At its meeting in Horsham on Wednesday January 23, Committee Members congratulated the Trust for the significant improvements that have been made to the patient experience.

This followed previous performance concerns regarding the hospital, which members heard is the busiest single site hospital in the south east coast region, and which many patients from the north of West Sussex attend (particularly from the Crawley and Horsham areas).

However, the Committee heard that there are challenges facing the whole health and social care system, which could put sustained improvements at risk – particularly around avoiding unnecessary hospital admissions and ensuring people receive the right care in the right place, closer to home.

Members heard about the new Proactive Care Programme, which West Sussex County Council and the NHS are working on together to help address these challenges.

Proactive Care will involve health and social care teams working together to ensure people are kept well and out of hospital, and the Committee urged the NHS and the County Council to give their full commitment to the programme.

Members also asked West Sussex County Council’s Cabinet to review the proposed performance target for diagnosing people with dementia amid concerns expressed by members that the 35% target set for West Sussex is not ambitious enough.

Chairman Margaret Whitehead said: “We know the health and social care economy in West Sussex is facing challenging times, so as a Committee we were pleased to hear how the NHS and the County Council is working together to improve services for patients.

“We particularly welcome the improvements made at East Surrey Hospital and hope that these will be maintained into the future for the benefit of all residents using its services.”

For the full write up of the meeting see next week’s papers.