To receive an analysis of occupancy at Glan Irfon.
Minutes:
Documents:
· Analysis of Glan Irfon Occupancy – December 2019
Discussion:
· A regular update would be provided to Committee on occupancy at Glan Irfon
· Glan Irfon was an Intermediate Care Facility to provide reablement with the vast majority of clients being stepped down from hospital
· Occupancy had dropped in July 2019 at the time of the handover to the Shaw Healthcare Trust
· Since Shaw has taken over there has been a review of the needs of the service and recommendations have been made. This included a review of both the building and equipment to ensure the facility is fit for purpose.
· The most recent data shows that Glan Irfon has full occupancy
· The challenge is to ensure a flow through of clients and that care is available for those clients to return home
· Winter pressures funding has been received and shared with the Health Board. The Health Board have used this funding to increase the therapy input at Glan Irfon.
· Members have previously asked whether end of life care or palliative care can be provided at Glan Irfon. Palliative care is provided but not end of life care although if a client becomes end of life during their stay, then they will continue to receive care. End of life care requires access to nursing provision which can be challenging to provide. A recent development has provided end of life care at Llandrindod Hospital.
· Discussions are ongoing with Brynhyfryd Residential Home, the GPs, Shaw and the Health Board regarding provision at Glan Irfon.
· The Committee noted that some clients had exceeded the expected maximum length of stay and were concerned that they may become institutionalised. It was recognised that it only takes two weeks to become institutionalised and every effort is made to ensure that clients can return home. Proactive reablement is provided.
· Members asked if it was intended to repeat the model in other areas and if such facilities could be used to improve delayed transfers of care or increase respite provision. The Head of Commissioning indicated that Glan Irfon would not be appropriate for respite care. However, one respite care bed has been allocated in each residential home and further beds were being block booked in new, private homes. It was suggested that respite could be a topic for future scrutiny. Credu are working on a project which is looking at innovative solutions to provide bespoke respite care.
· It was suggested that reablement was the responsibility of the Health Board, but this changed under the Community Care Act. The Social Services and Wellbeing Act clearly sets out that the Authority and the Health Board have a joint role in supporting people to live independently. Rehabilitation would be the responsibility of the Health Board but reablement is a lower level of rehabilitation which can be provided by domiciliary carers who have had additional training.
· Arranging home care is not the only challenge to the service. Demographics is also an issue with increasing demand for more acute services. Although there are fewer clients coming into the system due to early intervention policies, those that do access services tend to be older and have more acute needs.
· Both Health and Social Care need to adopt a recovery model. A consultant has recently undertaken a study in the County and his initial findings question whether the right model of community hospitals etc is currently provided.
· The service must make the best use of what is available to increase capacity, including increasing the role of community connectors. The Head of Commissioning indicated that the work programme for the Adult Services Working Group had been designed to look more closely at these issues.
· Direct Payments were continuing to increase – this topic would be discussed in depth at the Adult Services Working Group
· Members asked if there was a catchment area for Glan Irfon – there was no designated catchment area although the reasonableness of travelling times and distances was likely to have an influence
· It was suggested that the Committee consider one or two anonymized case studies to satisfy themselves of the distribution of work between the Authority and the Health Board
Outcomes:
· Anonymised case studies would be provided at a future date for consideration
Supporting documents: