Agenda item

Presentation from the Director of Planned Care, North East London ICS and Acute Alliance.

Members received a joint presentation of the Director of Planned Care, North East London ICS and Acute Alliance and the Acting Workstream Director for Planned Care, NHS North East London Clinical Commissioning Group, and City and Hackney Integrated Care Partnership and North East London Health and Care Partnership.

It was noted that there was still active recruitment of doctors and nurses, both in Europe and internationally.

The Chairman commented that the aim to return to pre-pandemic levels by March 2024 seemed unambitious. In reply, Members heard that this date was based on national recovery modelling. Local modelling in North East London has not yet taken place in detail but the scale of the challenge is likely to be similar. They are seeing increasing levels of referrals due to new patients, and efforts to clear the backlog. They are looking into how physical and workforce capacity can be improved in North East London, and can feed back to the Committee once more work on this has been done. There are plans to ensure a significant reduction in patients waiting over 52 weeks during this financial year, which is a key milestone in the delivery of our aim. The Directors stressed that it is important to be realistic about what could be achieved and set trajectories and milestones that reduce waiting list size and waiting times over the next 2 years.

It was noted that the proportion of operations currently being carried out  compared to 2019 is about 80%. The Chairman asked if waiting lists were going up. In reply, the Directors said that the waiting list for non-admitted patients was increasing, but the waiting list for admitted patients was currently going down. When asked how many people were waiting to go onto the waiting list, the Directors said that this could only occur if GPs were “holding on” to patients. A subsequent increase in referrals in June 2021, after a drop during the pandemic, suggests that GPs are not holding on to patients. The Chairman referred to Dame Alwen Williams’ response to his question on this topic at the Inner North East London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 23 June 2021, where she referred to a holding list for patients before they are placed on a waiting list. The Chairman and the Committee found this to be an unacceptable practice. In reply, the Directors said that they had not been aware of Dame Alwen’s response, and were not aware of this practice occurring in any of the Trusts.

A Member asked what the estimated extra number of deaths between October 2021 and March 2024 was. This was not information that the Directors had immediately available, but was something they could look into.

RESOLVED, that – the oral update be received.