Agenda item

Presentation by Lily O’ Connor, Programme Director Urgent and Emergency Care for Oxfordshire - Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire West ICB

Dan Leverson, Place Director for Oxfordshire and Karen Fuller, Interim Corporate Director of Adult and Housing Services presented the report. The main points included the following:

·       Already had been working on an Urgent Emergency Care Programme over the last two years.

·       This was presented as part of the Better Care buddies with a broad range of partners overseeing this and delivery groups.

·       The focus was to support people as much as possible in their homes, in their communities, having a short stay in hospital and providing support for people to go home and live independently.

·       Working with primary and community colleagues to achieve this and support people.

Councillor Rouane, South Oxfordshire District Council, commented that prevention was better than cure. The most important thing for preparedness had been the vaccination programme for flu and covid. However, the maps online for vaccination centres were very random. There were no vaccination centres in the Didcot area and it was difficult for the elderly and disabled to travel long distances for their vaccination which could have ramifications going forward.

The Director of Public Health gave a general update on the covid and flu vaccinations and that the sheer speed of delivery of the vaccinations had been good. The coverage had significantly improved considering it started on the 11 September 2023 and the national booking system went live on 18 September 2023.

The Chair of Healthwatch Oxfordshire commented that it was the same in Abingdon, there was limited coverage, and this was a difficulty for people with limited mobility or limited finances that had been asked to travel 20 miles which was not possible for many. The hubs were quite far apart and too difficult for some people to get to,

ACTION: To investigate further by speaking with the immunisation Team – Dan Leveson.

The Chair of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust commented that it was great to see all the work so far. However, if people were kept out of emergency departments, they could be back later in a worse situation so the transition of moving them out quickly would be delayed. It would be really helpful from a governance angle to have a dashboard that would enable all to see the total volume of people coming into the urgent care system and how well they were looked after.

ACTION: Present a first draft of a dashboard at next meeting in December 2023 – Lily O’Connor & Dan Leveson

Other comments made by the Board included:

·       Better communication was required that hospitals were not the best place for frail people.

·       Better working with City and District Councils was essential.

·       Rural areas were covered too and there was no postcode in Oxfordshire were there was a delay in getting care for people waiting to get discharged from hospital, this had been a massive shift change.

·       There had been a magnitude of improvement in so many areas, he system, social care, hospitals, care homes and it was a well done to all that had brought about this change.