Report attached.

Contact: Sam Tilley, Director of Planning, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups

The report of the Director of Planning, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups was received – copy attached to the signed Minutes – which updated the Board on the Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin CCGs winter planning arrangements.  The Accountable Officer introduced and amplified the report.

He reported that there had been some unusual considerations this year, not least Covid-19. He informed the Board that the increased range of the Flu Vaccination programme this year had impacted upon supply so not everyone had received their flu jab.  Part of the challenge around that went back to the logistics of delivering the Covid-19 vaccination as there had to be a gap between receiving the two.

The Accountable Officer explained that they had tried to ensure this year that the system was default??? rather than individual organisations.  They wanted it to be about the reorganisation of system priorities, recognising the challenges that they were also trying to restore services at the same time, but, making sure that they still had pan-organisational governance but that supported solutions and enabled rapid decision making.  They also wanted to ensure that staff were deployed appropriately to support priorities and that changes were being embraced as they went through this.  They also wanted to ensure that they learnt from what hadn’t worked particularly well in previous years.

The Accountable Officer informed the Board that initially organisations were asked to come forward with schemes and there were more than 30 put forward across the range of system partners, a lot of which were looking at admissions avoidance and/or discharge.  They then went through a process of narrowing those down before they got to a place where they had a range of schemes that were going to be taken forward and those included things like expansion of the rapid response service, into the Shrewsbury area particularly, looking at how therapy services could be used in a different way at the front door, and NHS111 etc.

The Chairman of Healthwatch Shropshire informed the Board that they were starting to research a new hot topic and starting to learn about the experiences of hospital patients and care home residents in respect of the visiting arrangements that had been made for family and friends when visiting in person had been so restricted.  They were hoping to capture a lot of good practice that could be introduced more widely and could feed in to the work of the New Ways of Working Group.

RESOLVED:  To note and support the contents of the report.

A presentation will be given.

Contact: Lynn Cawley, Chief Officer, Healthwatch

The report can be found at this link: https://www.healthwatchshropshire.co.uk/report/2020-07-07/health-care-and-well-being-services-during-covid-19-pandemic

Lynn Cawley, Chief Officer, Healthwatch Shropshire gave a presentation – copy of slides attached to the signed Minutes - which provided a summary of the findings and recommendations made following a survey looking at public experiences of Health Care, Social Care and Well-being services during the Covid-19 pandemic up to 31 May. 

Rachel Robinson, the Director of Public Health for Shropshire thanked the Chief Officer, Healthwatch for her really useful presentation and recognised the need for clear information and guidelines which was something that they had continued to try and support as the guidelines had changed throughout the pandemic.  It continued to be a challenge but was absolutely crucial to the work being done.  She recognised the work ongoing on this and with the communications teams to ensure that the messages got out. 

The Chief Officer Healthwatch Shropshire commented that the information given by employers was found to be the most helpful, and she wondered whether the system was sharing the information with employers so that it could be added to their websites and in their communications with staff.  Rachel thanked her for the feedback which was really helpful and she confirmed that they were working really closely with businesses.  The specific point about whether employers were sharing that through their intranet or through staff emails would be really useful and this would be followed up.  The Director of Public Health commented that the challenge had been that the government guidance had changed quite quickly but she explained that the Frequently Asked Questions were really useful on both the local and national sites.

Ros Preen, the Director of Finance, Shropshire Community Health Trust commented on how useful feedback from this kind of survey was for health care providers and that she would be sharing internally the outcomes from the report and considering the recommendations when restoring services.

The STP Programme Manager and Communities Lead explained that draft guidance in relation to shielding had been received and she suggested that collaborative working on this with Healthwatch Shropshire would be really helpful especially around clear messaging for the public.  She also drew attention to the on-line platform for people aged 16+ who were suffering with their mental health.  This provided a useful tool to ensure that people were not left struggling.  She also touched on investment in bereavement counselling services.

The Chief Officer, Healthwatch Shropshire informed the Board that the full report including all comments received was available on their website.  She reported that Healthwatch Shropshire had aligned their priorities to those of the STP and she requested that if any organisation within the system wished them to undertake a particular piece of work to let her know and she would take it to the Board for consideration.

RESOLVED:  To note the contents of the Health Care, Social Care and Wellbeing services during the Covid-19 pandemic – Healthwatch survey responses.