Agenda item

Updates to the Board on the outcomes of Joint Place Forum and Coventry and Warwickshire Health and Care Partnership Board meeting held on the 2 March 2021, with a verbal update from the meetings held on 17 June 2021 - Sir Chris Ham

Sir Chris Ham introduced this item, which reported back on the outcomes of the Joint Place Forum and Coventry and Warwickshire Health and Care Partnership Board (HCPB) meeting held on 2 March 2021.  This virtual meeting was joined by around 70 partners from across the health and wellbeing system. The report outlined the focusses for the meeting which included:

• Updates from the Health and Care Partnership
• Information about how partners were responding to Covid-19
• Tackling health inequalities and improving health and wellbeing outcomes for communities, with a particular focus on mental health and wellbeing
• Discussion about how members could support these agendas within their communities and organisations
• The key themes emerging from discussion were set out in the report.

A verbal update was provided on the Joint Place Forum and Coventry and Warwickshire HCPB meeting held on 17 June 2021. The key areas raised were:

• Public health directors reported on the Covid-19 outbreak management plans. 
• Presentations on reducing inequalities in health.
• The CCG updated on restoring services to address waiting lists.
• A number of themes emerged during the meeting. Some positives were the new partnership working with local communities and Coventry being the city of culture in 2021. A discussion on working with the business community and the public sector on the call to action on tackling health inequalities. The wellbeing for life programme had been discussed.
• The restoration of NHS services was going well to address waiting lists and service backlogs, with a successful bid for the accelerator programme, which would provide additional funding. 
• There were massive pressures for the NHS and adult social care. A start had been made on restoration, but it would take considerable time. All services were working as hard as possible.
• In terms of actions and next steps these were the themes above, with the key areas being outlined.

Questions and comments were invited from the Board.

• Dame Stella Manzie reinforced the valuable partnership working in the Health and Care Partnership, especially the collaboration between the two directors of public health and their outstanding contributions. She referred to the accelerator programme and the close working of staff within the three acute hospitals on this programme.   Many consultants and staff were eager to make progress in reducing the service backlog and a lot of good work was taking place.
• The accelerator programme was welcomed. A discussion on the initiatives to address the service backlog. There was a mixed approach, in the main through funding additional internal sessions. An example of this was the additional orthopaedic surgery at St Cross Hospital in Rugby during weekends, whilst ensuring staff were not overloaded. An approach of working with more innovation. Sometimes external support was needed, such as use of care homes for rehabilitation and in some cases use of the independent sector, or their premises. There were stringent reporting requirements for the programme and good progress was being made. However, returning waiting lists to the levels before the pandemic would take a long time for some services.
• Sir Chris Ham added a note of caution regarding the increasing number of Covid cases. This would impact on the ability to continue with restoration work. He demonstrated this with an example elsewhere in the country.
• A message to encourage young people to have the Covid vaccination.
• The Chair thanked the HCPB, referring to their reorganisation, the endeavours on reinstating services and tackling health inequalities.

Resolved

That the Health and Wellbeing Board notes and comments, as set out above, on the reports from the Joint Place Forum and Health and Care Partnership Board meetings held on 2 March and 17 June 2021.