Agenda item

Ed Waller, Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officer and Interim Chief Delivery Officer, ICB, was in attendance for this item.

1.     The Chair welcomed Ed Waller (Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officer and Interim Chief Delivery Officer, ICB) to the meeting. Mr Waller explained that the creation of a winter plan was a statutory requirement for Integrated Care Boards. The Kent and Medway ICB produced a comprehensive plan which linked to national priorities and combined lessons learned from previous years.

2.     This ‘whole-system’ winter plan mixed various elements of care service provision, including primary, community, acute, mental health and social care. It used public health information and data to predict demand, particularly in busy periods during winter, and identify the areas most impacted. The plan included surge plans, capacity and demand predictions, improvements to mitigate demand, urgent emergency care assurance and localised Health and Care Partnership (HCP) plans.

3.     The reason for the development of the Winter Plan was that there was a surge of demand in the winter season which was driven, for example, by winter viruses and falls. One of the main aims was how to avoid congestion at A&E departments; often hospitals were not the best place to meet the health needs of the population.

4.     Another aim was to examine hospitals’ operational mechanisms to make sure that they run smoothly - for instance by ensuring shorter waiting times in emergency departments. Much depended on putting in place packages of care, in partnership with KCC’s Adult Social Care services, that allowed patients who were fit to leave the hospital to return home or to the most appropriate setting for their post-hospital care.

5.     Mr Waller said that, this winter, NHS Kent and Medway's performance was relatively strong against several of the national indicators, including ambulance handover times into emergency departments. Efforts were being made to reduce the occurrence of waiting times of more than 12 hours in Emergency Departments.

6.     In answer to a question on whether the Discharge to Assess system (where assessments takes place outside hospital in order to speed treatment) was still operational, Mr Waller confirmed that this was still the case.

7.     A Member asked about the extent to which the capacity and agility of KCC’s Social Care services was able to support this system.

a     Mr Waller said that the challenges that existed in social care and in the discharge pathways out of hospital were common to all NHS services across England. The NHS had a good working relationship with KCC. The ten-year plan set out a very clear vision for creating a range of opportunities and systemic support in the community, when these best met the health needs of the population. For example, there was a joint appointee whose main role was to put together packages of care that included services from both organisations to best serve those with learning disabilities and autism.

b     Mr Waller added that neighbourhood health service provision would ultimately be best delivered if Health and Social Care services worked together in a more integrated way.

RESOLVED that the Committee note the report.