Minutes:
The Deputy Director of Recovery and Planning (DDRP) at NEL CCG delivered a presentation on the key progress and achievements of the BHR Transformation Boards. Whilst the work of the Boards had been paused in 2021, owing to the need to redeploy staff during the Covid-19 pandemic, priorities had been reset since the Boards had resumed. The DDRP detailed some examples of key progress against the eight Transformation Boards in BHR, which comprised:
· Cancer;
· Children and Young People;
· LD and Autism (NEL Board);
· Long Term Conditions;
· Mental Health (NELFT/NEL System wide Board);
· Planned Care;
· Older People/ Frailty; and
· Unplanned Care.
The BHR Transformation Boards were monitoring the impact of the transformation activity, noting that data and key information were showing that over the past year, A&E activity and admissions had decreased in general and were on a continual downward trajectory. The BHR Transformation Boards would continue to review the impact of the transformation activity, and continue to invest and develop services that helped the population, and create sustainability over the longer term.
In response to questions from Members, the DoT at NEL CCG stated that:
· The Cancer Board had a wide remit, including patient experience, the early identification of cancer screening targets and overall targets that the Trust had been asked to achieve. The Faster Diagnosis (FDS) standard (patients being informed of their cancer status within 28 days of their referral) had been achieved for the last three months across three of its key specialities, where it had the most referrals in to BHRUT. Whilst this did not remove concerns around the late presentations of cancers and the impact of Covid-19, this was a very positive step in the right direction.
· BHRUT were in a very good position in terms of treating cancer patients, and it had gained funding from the North East London Cancer Alliance. Funding was being offered for the purchase of dermatoscopes, which would help in terms of skin cancer identification, which had been offered in recognition of the fact that other parts of North East London already had this equipment, whereas BHRUT did not.
The Council’s Director of Public Health (DPH) stated that his team was undertaking active case finding for missing cancers due to the pandemic, and was restarting this for other chronic diseases such as COPD and diabetes. The team was also recovering the Health Check programme, working to ensure that patients could be screened early for any conditions. The DoT stated that there was currently a particular surge in breast referrals, which whilst not positive in terms of the management needed for this, was very positive in terms of patients coming forward.
In response to further questions, the DoT stated that:
· The development of the BHR Workforce Academy over the past year, had been a positive step in working to address gaps in recruitment, particularly focusing on therapists and on Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) as these had the largest shortages. The Academy was looking into changing the offer so that more people were attracted to these posts locally, such as through having posts that enabled employees to rotate through community services, the hospital and primary care. She recommended that the Head of the Workforce Academy attend a future meeting of the Committee, to talk about this area, as BHR were leading on this. BHR had also developed a tool that showed it where the current workforce was coming from, linking into its anchor organisation work, particularly around BHRUT and NELFT.
· There was currently a review being undertaken within the Mental Health Transformation Board to consider how the Board would work moving forward and how it would integrate on a North East London level, acknowledging that there was a very high demand on mental health services post-pandemic, and that the service model needed to change to be able to accommodate this.