Councillor Steve Wright represented the Liberal Democrats at last weeks meeting of Bury’s Health Scrutiny Committee.

Fairfield Hospital Update
Senior management from Fairfield Hospital gave a presentation on the ‘Improvement Journey’ Fairfield Hospital in the last couple of years.  The hospital was rated by the Care Quality Commission as  ‘Requires Improvement’ and now it is ‘Good’. This was hard to achieve because only half the set criteria were checked. According to management the main reason for the change is due to a high level of engagement with staff ‘on the ground’ and lot of the ideas and resolution to issues has come from them.

The full presentation is here.

Children and Young People Autism Waiting Times.
Burt Clinical Commissioning Group came to give a presentation on what they are doing to improve the length of time it is taking for children and young people to be able assessed for a diagnosis of autism.

– The number of Children under 9 requiring review has increased from 75 2012/13 to 144 in 2017/18.
– Referral to First Assessment wait time – average wait is 8-9 weeks (though this has been significant improvement seen since July 2017)
– Referral to Diagnosis Outcome waits – some children waiting up to 18 months for consideration at the SCDDG.

A number of improvements to services have already been put in place, with more planned. A full summary is in the presentation here.