National Advisory Board for Rehabilitation minutes: August 2021

Attendees and apologies

Present:

• Carolyn McDonald  (Chair) (CM), SG – Chief Nursing Officer’s Directorate
• Marianne Hayward, (Vice Chair)(MH) - Head of Health and Social Care, South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership, and representative for HSCP Chief Officers Group
• Bette Locke (BL), SG – Chief Nursing Officer’s Directorate and Clinical Priorities Policy 
• Bryony Murray (BM),  SG – Clinical Priorities Policy
• Belinda Robertson (BR), Healthcare Improvement Scotland
• Sara Redmond (SR), Programme Manager, Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE)
• Laurie Eyles (LE), SG – Health Improvement Policy
• Dr Nadine Cosette (NC), Liaison psychiatrist, NHS Lothian
• Emma Stirling (ES), Allied Health Professions Directors (Scotland) 
• Leah Crawford (LC), SG – Clinical Priorities Policy Officer, Secretariat

Apologies

• Susan Wallace (SW), SG – Clinical Priorities Policy
• Dr Tara Quasim (TQ), Senior Lecturer in Anaesthesia and Critical
• Melanie Weldon (MW), SG – Health Inequalities Policy 
• Jan Beattie (JB), SG – Chief Nursing Officer and Primary  Care   Directorate
• Dr Malcolm Daniel (MD), Quality Improvement Fellow, Medical Lead     for Quality   Improvement, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Dr Angela Gall (AG), British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine 
• Caroline Deane (CD), Workforce lead, Scottish Care
• Dr Jacques Kerr (JK), Senior Medical Officer, Unscheduled  Care National   Programme, Scottish Government
• Professor Alex McMahon (AM), Scottish Executive Nurse Directors
• Dr Alastair Cook (AC), Principal Medical Officer for Mental Health, Scottish  Government
• Dr Michelle Watts (MW), Senior Medical Adviser, Primary Care, Scottish Government
• Phil Mackie (PM), Public Health Scotland

Items and actions

Welcome, introductions and apologies - Carolyn McDonald

Carolyn McDonald welcomed all members to the seventh meeting of the National Advisory Board for Rehabilitation.

Carolyn McDonald addressed the large number of apologies due to annual leave and other commitments and asked.

Apologies were noted as above.  

Minutes of previous meeting - Carolyn McDonald

Carolyn McDonald advised that an email will be sent requesting any amendments to be made to the minutes. These should be made to the Clinical Priorities inbox by close of play on Friday 27 August 2021.

Update from Self-Assessment exercise - Bette Locke/Bryony Murray/Sara Redmond

Bette Locke advised we had over 280 responses from Health and Social Care. 

Bryony Murray advised that the procurement process is underway, with a small team of health researchers. The procurement team will provide a detailed timeline of what information should be returned and when, which will form the workload for the Clinical Priorities team over the next six weeks. We will have a more in-depth report by our next meeting. 

Sara Redmond advised that the self-assessment scoping which took place within the third-sector is at a similar stage. There was 60 responses to this scoping. The analysis for this was more in-depth than originally anticipated. Analysis is in final stages, and there are clear themes showing already. A report is underway and should be completed in the coming weeks. 

Carolyn McDonald advised that following this feedback on the timescales around analysis, it may be more suitable for our next board meeting to take place in October. 

Bette Locke advised at the end of the analysis period, we may notice 

Belinda Robertson mentioned discussions around the 90-day improvement cycle review as part of the wider Primary and Secondary care scoping. As patient and family interviews have been done, this information may be helpful in a smaller scale due to the depth of information gathered.  

Delayed discharge report supporting enablement - Marianne Hayward

Carolyn McDonald referred to a discussion between herself and Marianne last week around delayed discharge and enablement, stressing the importance that delayed discharge does not sit within our unit of government, however reablement is mentioned in the Rehabilitation framework. 

Marianne Hayward advised that there is a ‘perfect-storm’ in terms of delayed discharge with people coming in from A and E who have been admitted due to long-COVID related issues. These people are now requiring home care, and we do not have the staff in terms of rehab to support this. 

In addition to this when individuals are discharged, we would aim for rehabilitation for longer however this is not possible due to the redeployment of AHP services to support the pressures at the beginning of the pandemic. 

Marianne Hayward added that if money and effort is added on the Rehabilitation side, this would support the whole system. 

Presentation on Long COVID Rehab - Bette Locke

Bette shared a powerpoint presentation with the board. 

Bette advised that herself and Carolyn were invited to a meeting with NICE/SIGN to review the guidance on long COVID, and to talk about rehabilitation in Scotland. 

Bette shared data and reflections from this meeting with the board. 

Bette flagged to the board that NSD have carried out work in which they have gone out to boards and HSCPs to ask about long COVID services. Bette pointed out that this survey closed two weeks ago and we are waiting on data coming back from this. 

Bette raised that generally, people with long COVID are being treated with existing rehab services. Bette added that the general consensus was that people who responded said that they would prefer the Scottish Government to fund long COVID pathways within Boards. 

Bette suggested bringing information back to the board when we receive the report.

AOCB and next steps (5 minutes)

Belinda Robertson asked about the possibility of using the September meeting to discuss the NHS Recovery Plan. Sara Redmond added that it may be useful to use September’s meeting to discuss emerging themes from the Self-Assessment tool results. 

Emma Stirling added that within boards the common question asked is around recovery planning. A big issue being faced here is around allocation of funding which has been further impacted by the impact of the pandemic. Emma added that it may be beneficial to investigate if there is going to be national funding associated with this work. Emma addressed a need for recurring funding within rehabilitation services. 

Date and time of next meeting – TBC    

Actions:

• HSC Self-Assessment tool findings to be reported - Bette Locke - in progress
• alliance report findings to be reported - Sara Redmond - in progress
• Bette to bring more information back to board from NSD report - Bette Locke - in progress