Agenda item

Report to follow

The Board gave consideration to a report and presentation by Dr Shelley Grumbridge on the next steps in Urgent Primary Care in Oldham.

The purpose of the Urgent Care Strategy was to set out, in a single document, the future plans for commissioning and developing urgent care across Oldham to ensure it is effective, affordable and sustainable. Whatever the urgent need was, and in whatever location, the aim was to ensure that the population had access to the best care from the right person in the best place and at the right time.

The strategy document set out and defines the vision and strategic aims for urgent care in Oldham. It included a detailed description of current services including activity, quality and performance. The strategy finished by describing commissioning principles, priorities for system change, defining ‘what good looked like’ to drive outcomes-based commissioning and suggested metrics for monitoring system change and development.

The strategic aims were:-

The primary drivers were to:

·       Achieve 91% towards the 95% 4 hour wait standard by March 2019

·       Reduce A&E attendances by 24% by 2021

·       Reduce non-elective admissions by 14% by 2021

The strategy set out the following priorities for change over the next three years:-

Our priorities for change across the urgent care system over the next three years are:

Ø  Move to a more proactive management of long term conditions and those at risk of hospitalisation by taking a population approach

Ø  More actively promote self-care and make it much easier for patients to access high quality, reliable information and services

Ø  Ensure primary care – in hours and out of hours services – is the service of choice for patients to meet their urgent care needs

Ø  111 direct booking into the 7 Day Service

Ø  Develop options locally for patients to access an “urgent care hub” in each GP Cluster with enhanced skills to manage long term conditions and cases which currently present to hospital.

Ø  Continue to reduce ambulance conveyance rates

Ø  Develop community pharmacies into urgent care providers

Ø  Reduce ED attendance rates and 999 calls for urgent conditions

Ø  For urgent mental health care, achieve parity with physical health care

Ø  Develop a paediatric urgent care pathway, at cluster level

Ø  Develop a frail elderly urgent care pathway dovetailed with a population health approach to falls prevention at cluster level

Ø  Consider prioritisation of services by need to tackle health inequalities

Ø  Create a business intelligence platform to analyse and understand the impact of the wider determinants of health at a neighbourhood level.

The Board asked for and received clarification on resources and staffing. They were informed the strategy was about joining everything together and managing situations before they became emergencies. Urgent care hub appointments would not be used to replace regular GP appointments.

The Board recognised that it was essential to ensure the needs of children were fully included and that the service needed to consider how best to support people at home rather than in hospital. Communication would be the key to ensuring people understood how to get the best out of the service.

RESOLVED that the Board noted the progress made and would receive further updates.