Agenda and minutes

The Chairman reminded members of what to do in case of an emergency.

Members are invited to disclose any interests in any of the items on the agenda at this point of the meeting. Members may still disclose an interest in an item at any point prior to the consideration of the matter.

There were no disclosures of interests.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 19 October 2023 (attached).

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Report and presentation attached.

The Committee received health updates from NHS, BARTS, NELFT and BHRUT colleagues.

Members noted the NHS would be converting patients’ paper records to electronic records at Queen’s and King George’s hospitals. It was explained that this change would allow for patients’ records to be accessed at other hospitals and the records would be backed up in case of a glitch or if the system is hacked.

Members also noted the update of seasonal COVID-19 and flu vaccines were in line with the London average.

BHRUT colleagues updated members on the latest type 1 performance for urgent and emergency care had improved and Same Day Emergency care (SDEC) played a vital role in reducing admissions with the SDEC departments at both hospitals seeing 128 patients a day on average.

Members received positive news that the radiotherapy unit at Queen’s had received the first upgrade to its machines in the UK which would allow for pictures to be taken in 6 seconds compared to 43 with the previous machines

NELFT colleagues updated members on the Right care Right Person collaboration with the Metropolitan Police that went live across London on 1st November 2023. Members noted the collaboration aimed to provide a single aligned response support for all mental health providers across London. It was noted that police deployments reduced by 14% in the first month while calls to 111 had increased for mental health.

Members made no recommendations and noted the report.

Report and presentation attached.

The Committee were presented with the Joint Forward Plan (JFP) for 2024-25.

Members noted the JFP was a document that brought together the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and partner trusts to provide NHS services to meet the residents’ needs. Members noted the partners asked to be consulted earlier in the process and noted the timeline which was presented.

Members noted the main additions to the 24/25 JFP was more information to ensure all strategic system improvement, Place plans, six-cross-cutting themes and enablers are covered with additional information on what is important to the residents and how that impacted the plan, the successes to date and how the strategic outcomes are developing.

Members raised questions on community waiting lists to which officers explained that waiting lists were still an issue due to the availability of the work force. It was also explained that the Community Health team oversees the work on waiting lists and children and adult waiting lists are treated as separate.

Members noted the report and made no recommendations.

Report and presentation attached.

The Committee received an update on the London Ambulance Service (LAS).

The London Ambulance Service representatives explained that there had been 5700 calls to 999 and 6000 calls to 111 and the response times had greatly improved. The service had received recruited more paramedics and had ordered 232 more ambulances to replace the old ambulances with lighter, more environmentally friendly ones and had ordered 2 fully electric ambulances with the aim to have 4 by the end of the financial year.

It was noted that there had been an improvement in ‘Cat 2’ responses with a reduction from 1hr40mins in the previous year to 39mins at the time of the meeting, with the improvement being greater than the rest of London, however, the service had been commissioned to reach a target of 30mins response time.

Officers explained a challenge faced by the service is 999 or 111 patients arriving at A&E assuming they have an appointment booked with their details ready and work is ongoing to ensure details are made available sooner.

The 5 year strategy of the service was noted to be ambitious as they aimed for London to have the best heart attack survival rate in the world. To deliver this, the LAS was training the public and children in schools to teach them the correct chest compression procedures. The target was a 40%+ survival rate and London was at 31% at the time of the meeting.

Members were pleased to hear the LAS was working with AI technology for phone calls and noted ambulances are dispatched within 45 seconds of the start of the phone call due to AI noticing keywords.

The Committee noted the report and made no recommendations.

Report and presentation attached.

The Committee was updated on the collaboration between BARTS, BHRUT and Homerton Healthcare as the NEL London Acute Provider (APC) since July 2022.

It was explained to Members that the collaboration aimed to ensure the best healthcare for residents with priority areas being the digital programme for patient records. Members noted officers were considering ways to scale up the APC across NEL which would cause the collaboration to be more attractive creating better opportunities.

Officers described the concern that resources could be taken out of NEL and moved into Central London but BARTS had committed expertise and services to support BHRUT.

Members noted the report and made no recommendations.