Agenda item

Purpose: To receive an update from the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board on their activities.

Belinda Seston, Interim Place Director of the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB), presented her report on ICB activities.

Belinda Seston confirmed the BOB ICB went live on the 1^st July 2022. This meant the Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was disbanded. There was a great deal of work happening at a strategic level including developing the ICB Strategy and the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP). Ms Seston advised that Sarah Webster was the incoming Place Director for Berkshire West and would be the key point of contact for the Health Scrutiny Committee from the ICB.

Belinda Seston gave an overview of the flu and Covid vaccination autumn plan. She explained it would be co-administered where possible. She advised that additional money was available from NHS England to support winter resilience.  £1,600,000 was to build on the current infrastructure to help support discharge out of hospital and to support admission prevention. £500,000 was available for discharge (to assess beds for patients ready to be discharged) but needed some more time to have plans assessed. These built on the current infrastructure.

Ms Seston advised the Committee there would be an urgent care centre piloted in Reading. This would be from early October to support the considerable pressures on Emergency Departments. Emergency Departments could offer appointments there, along with GPs and there would be walk-in appointments. It would be an 18 month pilot to test how it worked. Ms Seston explained that elective care recovery was a national initiative following on delays to surgery due to Covid. The BOB ICB aim was that no patients were waiting more than 78 weeks for surgery by the end of 2022.

Ms Seston highlighted work happening on the management of long term conditions. She explained that September was ‘know your numbers’ month to encourage people to check their blood pressure. 21 practices across Berkshire West were taking part in the scheme to monitor blood pressure at home.

Ms Seston noted that dementia performance was picked up on in the Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group’s annual report. She advised that memory clinics were paused during the pandemic. There was a substantial transformational plan to address the waiting lists including an increase in staff. She advised that they were now on track to meet the national target by the end of the financial year.

Councillor Linden noted that he had his Covid booster vaccination along with the flu vaccination. He asked whether there was a plan for a booster in six months. Belinda Seston advised that they had enough supply to meet demand and had enough capacity to be agile if things changed.

Councillor Linden asked whether the urgent care centre was a replacement for the walk in centre in the Broad Street Mall. Belinda Seston advised that they were currently looking at tenders and were still deciding where the facilities would be located. Councillor Linden noted that 20-25% of West Berkshire would be able to access the urgent care centre but also pointed out that it was a rural area.

Councillor Linden highlighted that elderly patients waiting up to 78 weeks for elective care might have been in pain or discomfort and asked if that was taken into account when prioritising care. Belinda Seston advised that harm reviews were completed regularly with patients waiting longer than a certain time and so those factors were taken into account and waiting lists adjusted based on clinical need.

Councillor Macro noted that the ICB report did not include improving access to primary care and dentistry. Belinda Seston explained that the four principles set out in the report were the principles the ICP needed to support the ICS in achieving. She confirmed that dentistry was within three or four of those principles. She confirmed these were guiding principles of an ICS. She also confirmed that GP services would go across all four of the principles. The ICS would develop their strategy and that should be available around the beginning of December 2022.