Agenda item

The Committee considered a joint report of the Chief Executive and the Integrated Care Service (ICS) Performance Service which provided an update on public health and health system performance in Leicestershire and Rutland based on the available data in August 2023. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 10’, is filed with these minutes.

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting for this item Rachna Vyas, Chief Operating Officer, NHS Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland, and Alison Buteux, NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)           Members asked that future performance reports contain regional and national benchmarking data to enable the Committee to assess Leicestershire’s performance in the wider context. In response it was confirmed that this type of data was now available and could be included in future reports. Members also asked that the performance reports provide greater clarity on the direction of travel for the metrics i.e. whether performance was improving or not over a period of time. It was agreed that links to online performance data would be circulated to members after the meeting.

(ii)         With regards to the Accident & Emergency metric of admission, transfer, discharge within 4 hours, 99% of LLR Urgent Care Centres were meeting the target and for the Emergency Department the target was being met with 61% of patients. One of the reasons performance against this metric was not better was a lack of beds and problems with flow of patients through the wider hospital. Some of the patients arriving at the Emergency Department did not need to be there and could have been dealt with elsewhere. In response to a question from a member it was clarified that according to data received at system level, it did not appear that staffing numbers were a problem, a lot of recruitment had taken place and workforce numbers in the Emergency Department were as per plan.

(iii)        In response to a question about the impact of strike action on Leicestershire’s performance data it was explained that acute care had been prioritised and the main impact had been on elective care. However, partnership working was taking place across the system to tackle the elective care backlog and GPs were assisting with some elective procedures.

(iv)       Members raised concerns that whilst bowel cancer screening coverage had improved, coverage for breast cancer and cervical cancer had declined. It was questioned which sections of the population were not coming forward for screening and what could be done to encourage them. It was acknowledged that there needed to be better communication with the public about screening programmes and the ICB agreed to provide documentation on screening to members after the meeting which could be circulated to the general public.

(v)         Members welcomed that Leicestershire was in the top quartile for the metric ‘Percentage of people who are resident in the HWB, who are discharged from acute hospital to their normal place of residence’.

(vi)       With regards to the metric ‘Long-term support needs of older people (aged 65 and over) met by admission to residential and nursing care homes, per 100,000 population’ the aim was to move into the second quartile when compared to similar authorities. There was confidence that this target would be met due to the large amount of partnership work taking place particularly the Home First initiative where patients were assessed to see what they needed to help them with reablement. It was also reassuring that the high level of performance against the metric had been maintained through the winter periods.

(vii)      With regards to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPTs) there had been a recent performance improvement which was significant as performance had been stagnant for a long period of time.

RESOLVED:

That the update on public health and health system performance in Leicestershire be noted.