Presentation from officers of North East London NHS Foundation Trust.
Minutes:
North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) officers explained that a partnership had been established between NELFT and Havering CCG to deliver care at home. The productivity of community beds had been reviewed and this had led to the introduction of the community treatment team and intensive rehabilitation service (IRS).
The IRS composed of a team of physiotherapists, nurses and occupational therapists. The service, which had commenced in November 2013, operated seven days a week across Havering, Redbridge and Barking & Dagenham. A total of 535 patients had been seen since the service started. The service had received very good satisfaction survey scores and a large number of compliments about the service provided.
It was clarified that occupational therapy was no longer provided as a standalone service but was delivered within multi-disciplinary teams such as the IRS, community rehabilitation team and mental health service teams. The community treatment team was a seven day a week service treating people at home.
NELFT’s community health and social care service had been remodelled over the last six months and now consisted of six cluster-based teams comprising community nurses, therapists and mental health link workers. These teams were designed to provide longer term support at home.
The community rehabilitation team was a multi-disciplinary service for sufferers of neurological conditions such as head injuries, Parkinson’s disease, motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. Occupational therapists were also based in mental health services such as community recovery and early intervention teams from where casework support and specialised intervention could be offered. It was clarified that post-traumatic stress disorder would normally be treated under NELFT’s community recovery teams. It was conformed that military veterans received priority access to medical services.
Services now commissioned from the Richmond Fellowship helped people with mental health conditions access education and training and it was confirmed NELFT were engaged with these services. No other mental health services were currently being recommissioned.
The waiting time to receive treatment varied depending on acuity. Home treatment could be provided with two hours of referral while a routine response could be provided within four weeks. The period from referral to diagnosis had been reduced to 10 weeks and the national target for diagnosis of dementia was believed to be 67%.
NELFT officers would confirm the number of Havering patients seen by the IRS to date though it was confirmed that Havering did have the highest throughput of the three boroughs. More patients were being seen by the service than under the former community beds model.
There were a total of 36 staff in the IRS. There were 1-2 vacancies that were filled with agency staff although it was agreed that recruitment to occupational therapy was a problem nationally. There were a total of 10 occupational therapists for the three boroughs covered which was a higher figure than under the community beds model.
There had been a good referral rate from GPs to both the IRS and the Community Treatment Team. Referrals could also be made by patients direct. A representative of the Havering GP Federation agreed that services were performing very well and that referrals had been easy to make.
There had only been one complaint received thus far concerning the IRS although officers would check on this. 92% of service users who responded to the Friends and Family test had indicated they were very happy with the IRS.
It was accepted by officers that NELFT needed to work with the Council and CCG on improving access to equipment. It would be necessary to strengthen social care input into the community health and social care team. NELFT officers also agreed that they would be able to assist with the requirements of the Care Act.
The Committee NOTED the presentation.