Agenda item

5.1  Members gave consideration to a paper ‘Development of a North East London Integrated Care Strategy’ and noted that the full strategy had to be submitted to NHSE in December. This set out the plan for the ICS which came into being on 1 July.

5.2  The Chair welcomed Zina Etheridge (ZE), CE of NHS NEL who took Members through the presentation.

5.3  The Chair commented that it came across as a very top-down Strategy and there was no mention of devolution to the 8 local Places and challenge of having a broad brush Strategy across the 8 boroughs.

5.4  Cllr Khan asked about the shortages of nurses and care home staff. ZE replied that on the issue of workforce and his it is captured in the document the intention was to tease out how they want to work in NEL at a more local level and to make this happen. She added that shortage of nurses was a particular concern and one ‘Employment and Workforce’ was a key priority in the document and making sure there is a sustainable workforce in NEL and that it is populated with as many local people as possible was key. DJ also detailed the specific NEL Workforce Strategy for Nursing.

5.5  Cllr Masters asked about the recent ‘Cost of living’ Workshop referred to in the paper. ZE explained how it had been very helpful and had covered such elements as the impact on those on lower incomes who don’t get free prescriptions and on the need for greater lobbying for free public transport or a reduction in the congestion charge for those attending hospital appointments.

5.6  Cllr Brewer asked about 30% of people in NEL waiting more than 4 hrs at A&E.  ZE explained that 4hr wait specifically wasn’t within the purview of this Strategy, which is much broader, but generally the focus has to be on improving access to urgent care so people don’t need to go to A&E in the first place. She detailed the work at Queens on improving flow through the Emergency Departments and the work in Primary Care to reduce A&E attendance. 

5.7  The Chair asked about a recent Health Services Journal news story about the £42m budget variance in NHS NEL’s budget after just 5 months. He asked whether it could be brought into line and what were the consequences.  ZE replied that while this was a significant number it represented 1% of total budget in NEL. It was a variance from plan rather than simply pure overspend and they were working very hard to bring the numbers back in alignment. The Chair asked how ICSs were supposed to handle overspend at the end of the year and whether it would be picked up by Treasury and what were the technical levers here for the ICS. ZE replied that the clear guidance from NHSE was that they must make every effort to get it back in line by the end of the financial year and they were working hard to achieve this.

5.8  Cllr Adams asked if the ICS Strategy was being shared with the 8 Health and Wellbeing Boards in each of the councils. ZE replied that it certainly was and would be going to each of them.

5.9  The Chair thanked ZE for the update and asked if the final version could come to the 15 December meeting.

ACTION:

Item on Final Draft of ICS Strategy to be added to the agenda for the 15 Dec meeting. 

RESOLVED:

  That the reports and discussion be noted.