Agenda item

The Committee considered a joint report of the Chief Executive of the County Council and NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit, which provided an update of performance to the end of October 2018. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 9’, is filed with these minutes.

The Committee welcomed Kate Allardyce, NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit to the meeting to present the report.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)        Members welcomed the 38% reduction in days lost due to delayed transfers of care, though noted that the actual number of days lost was still significant. The Committee was pleased to note that action plans were in place to further reduce the amount of days lost, and emphasised the importance of ensuring that the improvements in performance were sustainable. It was agreed that the action plans would be circulated to members after the meeting.

(ii)       In response to a query about whether swab tests could be used to make the prescribing of antibiotics more accurate, it was confirmed that GP and laboratory capacity, as well as the resources that would be required to implement it, meant that it was unlikely that regular swab testing would be introduced. GPs provided a reasonable diagnosis based on symptoms. Swab testing was carried out in secondary care for less common conditions.

(iii)      Under the CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework there was a metric for cancer patients to wait no more than 62 days from referral to first definitive treatment. There were nine other national cancer metrics one of which related to patients receiving first definitive treatment within one month of a cancer diagnosis. Members requested a separate report for a future Committee meeting which set out each metric and the performance against it. It was also agreed that the overall suite of performance reports for CCGs, UHL, LPT, BCF, Public Health etc would be reviewed to ensure that a full set of metrics were being reported to give members a full picture of performance in LLR in all key areas.

(iv)      A Member raised concerns regarding the waiting times for ENT and ophthalmology outpatient appointments. Micheal Smith advised that Healthwatch Leicester and Leicestershire had carried out some work on the patient experience of Ophthalmology appointments and were also conducting a separate piece of work on the impact on patients of appointment cancellations generally. He agreed to share the results of this work with the Committee.

(v)       The data in the report related to all patients that resided in the geographical area covered by the LLR Clinical Commissioning Groups therefore it included patients that accessed services outside of the County such as the George Eliot hospital in Nuneaton, or Kettering General Hospital. This could explain why the performance figures for East Leicestershire could be significantly different to the figures for West Leicestershire as the performance of the out of county hospitals would be fed into either the data for east or west Leicestershire depending on where the patient lived.

(vi)      Some recent figures for children of excess weight in Leicestershire indicated that there had been a significant deterioration compared to the previous year however it was believed that there had been a problem with the accuracy of the data for the Hinckley and Bosworth area therefore performance may be better than it appeared. An investigation into the data issues was ongoing.

(vii)    Newly available figures showed that breastfeeding prevalence in Leicestershire at 6-8 weeks after birth for 2017/18 was at 45% which was better than the national average.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the performance summary, issues identified and actions planned in response to improve performance be noted.

(b)       That the improvement in performance for days lost due to delayed transfers of care be welcomed.

(c)       That officers be requested to produce a report for a future meeting of the Committee regarding the nine national cancer performance metrics and the performance in Leicestershire against those metrics.