Agenda item

In virtual attendance: Caroline Selkirk, Executive Director for Health Improvement, K&M CCG, and Lee Martin, Recovery Director, Kent and Medway CCG.

1.    Caroline Selkirk introduced the report and provided an update since the report had been published.

·         There had been 1.8 million vaccines in Kent – 1.1m first doses and 700,000 second as of Thursday 3 June.

·         Uptake of vaccines had been 91%.

·         The 24-29 age group were being invited for vaccination.

·         There would be a pop-up vaccine centre in Ashford next week.*

·         ¾ of vaccines had been delivered by primary care, and she thanked volunteers for their work in supporting the vaccine programme.

·         Noted close work with Public Health.

·         Awaiting guidance on vaccinating children and boosters.

·         The number of patients in hospital with covid was low.

·         A post covid assessment service had opened.

·         Primary care was seeing an increase in demand. Rollout of the vaccination programme was on top of their usual workload.

2.    A member noted the reduced number of face-to-face GP appointments and asked if this would increase. Ms Selkirk acknowledged the reduction and explained that a working group had been established. She explained there were a number of patients contacting their GP surgery regarding non-primary care matters, and this put a strain on services.

3.    A member questioned the impact on staff from the increased pressures, noting that they had heard there were 44 clinical vacancies at QEQM hospital. Ms Selkirk explained work/ life balance had been returning to normal following the use of staff rotas at vaccine centres as well as needing less staff now routines were more embedded. KMPT were offering support services to struggling staff. Staff recruitment was challenging but Trusts were advertising locally, nationally and internationally. Bed modelling was used to monitor capacity and demand and more work was being undertaken in this area. Mr Martin offered to provide a response specific to QEQM outside of the meeting if required.

4.    The representative from the Local Medical Committee (LMC) and GP in East Kent, Dr Rickard, provided a summary of primary care’s response to the pandemic. She explained:

·         Primary care was under-resourced before the pandemic.

·         When the pandemic hit, GP surgeries followed government advice and moved to a telephone triage system. Patients were invited to a face-to-face meeting if it was deemed necessary.

·         Some frontline clinicians had themselves been required to shield.

·         Hot hubs were established for acutely unwell people, as well as assistance to stay at home.

·         Primary Care Networks, and the GPs within them, have led the vaccination programme roll out on top of their usual workload.

·         There had been an increase in demand across the entire health system.

·         GP surgeries were experiencing a high number of call from patients wanting an update on their secondary care appointments (that they were unable to help with).

·         Moving forward, more face-to-face appointments were taking place, working alongside a telephone triage system.

5.    In response to a question around demands on the primary care system, Ms Selkirk confirmed a national redesign programme was underway, which would look at what had worked well and not worked well and building on these. Triaging had benefits, though there had been different experiences across surgeries. Triaging had its limits, mainly due to staffing numbers, so leaders needed to consider how the demand on that service could be reduced – how could non GP enquiries be managed? One member cited the importance of keeping website and social media updated so patients would not need to phone up. Ms Selkirk recognised the need to utilise other methods of communication to reduce the strain on GPs. Dr Rickard gave the example of a pilot underway in East Kent where a patient access line was in use to support GP phonelines.

6.    A member questioned the effectiveness of telephone triage on mental health patients, as the first point of contact was often vital, especially if they were in crisis.

7.    A member highlighted the importance of equal access to services, citing a stalled life expectancy rate amongst women.

8.    The Chair mentioned the “My GP” app, which he had personally used and found effective, though he noted it may not be used by all Kent surgeries. Another Member acknowledged the app but noted that not all necessary information was available on it. Ms Selkirk believed the utilisation of apps would improve over time but that this was not within the control of the CCG.

9.    A Member asked if there was a dedicated phone number for mental health patients, to which Ms Selkirk said NHS 111 was the first point of call for all patients regardless of symptoms. She acknowledged work needed to be done to provide easier and more direct access to mental health lines.

10.Members expressed their thanks to all NHS staff for their work and support during the pandemic.

11.RESOLVED that the Committee note the report.

*Post meeting note – the pop-up vaccine centre was in Canterbury, not Ashford.