Agenda item

To follow

Jacqui Scott, Chief Executive Officer – Bromley Healthcare (“Chief Executive Officer”) and Janet Ettridge, Director of Operations – Bromley Healthcare provided an update on the work being undertaken by the organisation.

The Bromley Healthcare incident room had been running via a mixture of physical and virtual attendances since March 2020. In December 2020, this had been stepped back up to daily meetings, alongside which the following had been rapidly mobilised and implemented:

-  Cataloguing over 400 separate items of guidance;

-  Issuing more than 1 million items of PPE to staff (since the beginning of the pandemic);

-  Completing six daily situational reports (Sitreps);

-  Rolling out rapid lateral flow testing for patient facing staff from 14^th December 2020, and extended to the whole organisation from 21^st December 2020, with twice weekly testing being undertaken; and

-  Issuing 500 laptops and 400 phones to enable remote working.

The Chief Executive Officer emphasised that their staff had been outstanding, and extremely flexible. It was noted that the increase in COVID-19 related workforce absences were in line with local population increases. As of the 12^th January 2021, the organisation had 100 staff sickness absences, of which 57 were COVID-19 related (5% of the workforce). Some of these absences were in key services, however these were being managed through additional bank and agency shifts. A small number of staff had been redeployed, although it was highlighted that this was at a much lower level than during the first wave of the pandemic.

As services had recommenced following Wave 1, patient interventions had started to increase, along with a corresponding increase in activity. The referrals during October and November 2020 were above the levels seen for the same period in 2019. Over the last four months there had been a focus on reducing the waiting lists that had built up during the first wave of the pandemic. Overall, most areas were now “back on track”, and in line with their key performance indicators (KPIs). During the second wave, they had been successful in keeping as many services as possible operating in some format, including their Hollybank site which had been open and fully functioning.

With regards to Hospital Discharge Services, the key to its success had been the close partnership working with the PRUH, CCG and Local Authority. There had been a reduction in the length of stay (LOS) and an increase in the number of discharges. LOS in the home pathway had continued to decrease, with patients spending 1.5 fewer days (-6%) on the pathway in Quarter 3 2020-21, compared to the same period the previous year. LOS in beds had continued to decrease further. In Quarter 3, a patient spent on average 4 days fewer (-20%) on the pathway, compared to the same period the previous year, with an increase of 10 patients (+9%) discharged in the period to date. Members were informed that Foxbury rehabilitation unit had experienced a small outbreak of COVID-19 before Christmas, which had been safely managed. The team had recently been joined by a new geriatrician, who was now providing support to the unit, and in conjunction with the PRUH, had developed a community IPAC proposal which would be launched in the coming weeks.

The Bromley Community COVID Monitoring Service (BCMS) provided community support to residents that were COVID-19 positive. Patients received daily phone calls from the service, and there was also a hotline number which patients could call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with any concerns. The service was manned by GPs, Community Matrons and Respiratory Nurses, and they could refer patients on to the GP Alliance hub, or organise a home visit. There had been 4,302 admissions into the service, 473 of which were readmissions. During the past seven days, the service had received 252 referrals, with 268 referrals having been received the previous week. The caseload currently stood at 183 patients. Over recent weeks, there had been a significant increase in referrals, and the team were now undertaking round 150 daily phone calls. An initiative had been introduced the previous day, whereby low-risk patients could send in their readings, allowing staff to dedicate more time to their high-risk patients.

During the pandemic, Bromley Healthcare had successfully mobilised the new Bromley 0-19 Public Health Service, which would be discussed in more detail later in the meeting. In collaboration with the PRUH, they had also established the urgency respiratory service for adults, and a new Hospital@Home service for children would commence from the beginning of February 2021. The organisation had also received two regulatory visits during October and November 2020. Both visits had been challenging – Ofsted had visited Hollybank on the second day after it reopened, and the CQC inspection of the 0-19 Service had taken place only five weeks after they had taken over the contract. Overall, the Ofsted inspection had been positive, with only a couple of areas “to be worked on”. Good feedback had also been received from the CQC, and they were awaiting the final report being published.

The Chief Executive Officer noted that historically, the staff uptake of the flu vaccination had been relatively low, and therefore this year they had focussed on increasing it. Currently, 439 staff had received their vaccination, which was an uptake of 76%. A patient reference group had been enlisted to provide some quotes and share stories of why they felt healthcare professionals should get the flu jab. COVID-19 vaccinations had also commenced, with over 70 staff members having received their jabs at the PRUH, which it was noted had been an extremely well organised process.

Members were informed that Bromley Healthcare had published their People Plan, the key focus of which had been on keeping colleagues safe and looking after the wellbeing of the team – risk assessments had been completed for all staff, into which wellbeing discussions were being incorporated.

The Chairman led Members in thanking Jacqui Scott and Janet Ettridge for the update regarding the work of Bromley Healthcare.