Agenda item

Reviews of actions and status on this outcome

The report of the Chief Officer, Health Partnerships presented a detailed picture of current work being undertaken to deliver the Leeds Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2013-15 (JHWS) in particular focussing on Outcome 2 of the strategy – ‘People will live full, active and independent lives’.

Liane Langdon, Director of Commissioning and Strategy Development, Leeds North CCG presented the report.

The Board was given a presentation on Outcome 2, People will live full, active and independent lives.

Urgent Care was highlighted as one of the challenging issues in Leeds.  Issues raised in relation to this included the following:

·  There was a need to better inform people of how to access the appropriate care and alleviate pressure on A&E.

·  Work to be undertaken to raise awareness of urgent care – a workshop was planned that would include members of the public with health professionals.

·  Raising awareness of the 111 service.

·  Current urgent care provision in Leeds – The 111 Service, A&E, GP out of hours services, Walk-In Centres

·  Winter planning activities – extra funding for the winter period

·  Designing services that integrate with planned care

In response to Board Members comments and questions, the following issues were discussed:

·  Third sector involvement is required in the coproduction of the range of support provision and interventions.  It was confirmed by Liane Langdon that the third sector are and will increasingly be involved through the development process.

·  The impact on primary care with a corresponding shift of emphasis from A&E where conditions are treatable by a GP.

·  People’s perceptions and experience of urgent care available and how to access urgent care, especially, the variance across the city in the way residents view the role of A+E and local health services

·  How to improve communication regarding urgent care services available particularly in a city which has a large turnover of residents in some areas for example students

·  Engagement of young people and how they access urgent care.

·  Use and role of pharmacies.

·  Reducing unnecessary A&E admissions.

·  How to address why people use the services they do and better inform of the services that could be accessed.

·  Co-location and co-production of services – links between urgent care and planned care.

·  Transfer from hospital into long term care – and issues of transport-induced inefficiencies in the urgent care system

·  Why Leeds residents are high users of A+E compared to national average – and how to effectively get a grip on the scale of the problem

RESOLVED –

(1)  That the Overview, Exceptions and Commitments section of the report be noted.

(2)  That consideration be given to providing further information around benchmarking in Leeds against UK comparators including numbers of people (including elderly) who attend A&E which would be avoided through other channels (inappropriate admissions).

(3)  That the presentation on Outcome 2 of the strategy be noted and consideration be given by partner organisations to the following:

o  The appetite for risk of the health and local authority community in relation to the public perception and response to potential system changes within urgent/preventative care

o  The balance of investment between actions to avoid entrance to the urgent care system (e.g. admissions avoidance) and those designed to improve flow (e.g. facilitating discharge)

o  How health and social care partners build trust within the community in the full range of support and interventions available.

o  How the system can better leverage the use of pharmacies.