Dr Neil Hartley Smith, Executive Clinical Director, and Beth Goodman, Deputy Director of Commissioning, will make a presentation. There will be an opportunity for committee members to comment and ask questions.
Minutes:
Dr Hartley-Smith, Executive Clinical Director and Beth Goodman, Deputy Director of Commissioning attended the meeting for this item. They provided the committee with a PowerPoint presentation to update the committee on NHS priorities and system reform.
Beth Goodman explained to members the areas that Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Fylde, and Wyre CCG cover. She added that the commissioning group had recently taken over some additional practices in Garstang and Great Eccleston.
Beth Goodman summarised the NHS operational planning guidance and priorities for 2021/2022 and identified six areas of priority:
- Supporting the health and wellbeing of staff and taking action on recruitment and retention
- Delivering the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme and continuing to meet the needs of patients with COVID-19
- Transforming the delivery of services, accelerating the restoration of elective and cancer care and managing the increasing demand on mental health services
- Expanding primary care capacity to improve access, local health outcomes and address health inequalities
- Transforming community and urgent and emergency care (UEC) to prevent inappropriate attendance at emergency departments (EDs), improve timely admission to hospital for ED patients and reduce length of stay
- Working collaboratively across systems to deliver on these priorities
She highlighted to members the importance of the front line staff and back-office staff wellbeing, especially following events of the Covid-19 pandemic and difficulty with recruitment and retention on the Fylde Coast. She also praised the Fylde Coast for the successful rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination programme. She explained to members that the overall theme of this presentation was about collaborative working with local partners and integrated care system partners.
Beth Goodman explained to members the NHS reform proposed by the Government White Paper in February 2021. This outlined how the NHS in England needed to change to enable health and care to work more closely together. She also described the proposed changes to system and place following the White Paper. The NHS, local authorities and other partners had come together legally as part of statutory Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) to plan health and care services and focus on prevention. The current functions of CCGs had moved into a new NHS organisation at Lancashire and South Cumbria level.
In answer to several questions by members, Dr Hartley-Smith explained that the move to an Integrated Care System would require no changes to staffing. He reassured members that the reforms would still include delegated power passed down to place-based partnerships.
A question was asked about who the newly reformed system would be accountable to, which Dr Hartley-Smith explained that they are accountable to NHS England overall, however, Beth Goodman stated that next time they update the committee they should have the governance framework for the ICS to share.
In addition, Dr Hartley-Smith reassured members that the NHS remained free at the point of use for all residents of the UK.
In response to a question, Dr Hartley-Smith explained to members that the reorganisation would allow them to make savings as it would streamline decision-making, the savings would then be reinvested back into care.
Beth Goodman explained to members that the use of the private sector such as Spire was cost-effective and that its use was necessary to reduce the growing waiting lists.
Members also echoed concerns regarding issues with residents getting through to their local GP practices, particularly in Garstang. Beth Goodman suggested that as the commissioning group’s adoption of Garstang was relatively new they might have used different telephony to the rest of the Fylde Coast. Beth Goodman reassured members that the issue raised would be looked into.
The committee thanked Dr Hartley-Smith and Beth Goodman for their attendance and agreed that the updates were beneficial, and wished to continue receiving them.