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.