The Integrated Care Board (ICB) gave a verbal
update to the Commission on System Pressures. It was noted
that:
- The City had faced a Quademic, particularly in children and elderly
patients. With high numbers of the common cold, flu, covid
pressures and norovirus.
- The data demonstrated that all
Health Care settings had been under pressure.
- A knock-on effect and additional
pressures were faced due to the flooding and this had put a strain
on the Ambulance Service.
- Additional services had been put
into place to support the winter pressures. This included:
-
Extra appointments in primary care.
-
Increased opening hours of urgent treatment centres and increased
number of available appointments.
-
Ambulances taking patients to A&E and same day emergency care,
enabling patients to be seen by the correct service without waiting
in the emergency department.
-
The Same Day Emergency Frailty Service was now live.
-
Work had taken place with Derbyshire Health United to help manage
the ambulance stack for category 3 and 4 calls, to manage them with
a different disposition.
-
Increases to the number of community hospital beds.
-
Working with colleagues to try and promote the vaccination service.
Low levels of uptake had added to the overall pressures with more
patients in hospital with respiratory and viral infections that
could have been prevented, had they been vaccinated.
-
The Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccination programme had
been launched for patients over 75 this year. It’s hard to
see the data at this stage, however, it is hopeful this will help
ease pressures going forward.
- Plans were currently under way to
help support the NHS through next winters pressures and to reduce
overall waiting times across the service.
As part of discussions following the update it
was noted that:
- An additional clinical navigation
system was in place for 111 calls to make sure patients get in the
right disposition and reviews were in place to ensure calls were
getting to the right place, at the right time.
- From a General Practice point of
view, all GPs as part of the post graduate qualification have to
train in paediatrics either through hospital training or through
their general practice training.
- The Merlin Vaz and Oadby Walk-In
Centre are both available for walk in patients. When at full
capacity, patients are booked in to those centres and are streaming
away from A&E. On occasion when they are full, they may
temporally stop walk in patients.
- The Central Access point was now in
place for all patients across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland
(LLR) seeking Mental Health support. Patients can phone the line
and get immediate help either on the phone, face to face or if they
are known to the service the can go straight in to existing
services they have previously attended. Very few waits had been
observed in LLRs, compared to regional colleagues. LLR have one of
the lowest rates of patients who wait a significant amount of time
in Health Services for support because of the pathways that are in
place.
- The flu season had peaked, and the
trust was now experiencing a decline in cases. However, from a
respiratory virus perspective, the situation remained uncertain.
The trust continued to face extreme pressure during this time of
year, with additional measures in place to mitigate the impact
while actively exploring further actions to support services. Rapid
evaluations were taking place on pressures put in place this year
to see what had been the most productive. The trust had a strong
feeling on what those are and are using that to put in place the
plan for next year.
- The work done to manage the
ambulance stack had positive effects that were noticed. There was
still room for improvement, but it supported challenges and reduced
conveyances on patients going into A&E.
- Work was still needed to optimize
ambulance turnaround times, ensuring that handovers are completed
within a maximum of 45 minutes so ambulances can return to service
promptly. A new initiative, Leicester 90, was being explored
to ensure safe and efficient patient drop-offs and handovers.
Learning from neighbouring cities, the focus was not only on the
handover process but also on improving patient flow through the
hospital. Measures were being put in place to facilitate smooth
transitions, aiming for rapid handovers at a rate of three to four
patients per hour. This would help ensure timely assessments while
addressing essential patient needs such as pressure relief, access
to toilets, and nutritional support. Interventions were in place to
support these improvements.
AGREED:
·
Members thanked the NHS for the update and note the report.
·
That data on 111 patients to be circulated to Members.
·
An in-depth report into the Leicestershire Partnership Trust Mental
Health Services to be added to the Work Programme.