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 COVID-19 response by Bromley Healthcare.

The Chief Executive Officer informed Members that over the previous eight months, staff at Bromley Healthcare had been fantastic, despite the unprecedented challenges being faced. The teams had continued to put patients and their families at the heart of everything they did. During this period, they had undertaken 261,000 face to face visits and 74,000 virtual consultations, either by phone or video. At the July meeting of the Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee, it had been reported that 30% of the organisation had been repurposed, and there had been several “success stories”, including a number of colleagues who had not wanted to return from the nursing teams to their original roles, and were now retraining. The redeployment of teams and cross training of clinicians had also reduced silos within them, and a real insight had been gained into understanding what other services delivered.

The current issues for Bromley Healthcare were waiting lists and a workforce that was tired, due to grappling with both professional and personal challenges. It was not possible to continue to operate as they had previously, and the organisation would be working towards establishing self-regulated teams, the benefits of which had been highlighted during the pandemic. An example of this had been demonstrated at a meeting earlier that day, with a presentation from a team who were empowering patients through a self-care pathway as part of their transformation. Data had also been used to help support and understand the impact of interventions provided by the District Nursing team, and “bite size” training videos had been developed to support other teams.

The Chief Executive Officer highlighted the data provided to Members relating to the Single Point of Access (SPA). The SPA allowed patients to be discharged from hospital much quicker, which reduced the length of stay in both the rehab bedded unit and the home pathway unit. The length of stay in beds had decreased by an average of2.42 days per month (-12.3%) against the same period last year, with a corresponding average increase of 5 additional patients discharged per month (+13%). The length of stay in the home pathway had decreased by an average of 5.12 days per month (-21%) against the same period last year, with a corresponding increase of 35 additional patients discharged per month (+51%).

The Bromley Community COVID Monitoring Service had been established at the beginning of the pandemic, to accept referrals from 111 and GP practices for residents in the borough with suspected COVID-19. Advice was provided to the residents, and if necessary, they would receive a daily monitoring call until they felt well enough to be discharged. Patient feedback indicated that of those who responded, 95% felt supported through this service. However, as the service was new, Bromley Healthcare wanted to gain a better understanding of patients ongoing symptoms. A snapshot of this had been provided, and a link to the full survey would be provided to Members following the meeting. The data charted each patient’s journey from referral, into the Community COVID Monitoring Service – looking at the symptoms they displayed; whether they were admitted to hospital; if they experienced any ongoing symptoms; and the advice available to them.

Bromley Healthcare’s ‘Restart Programme’ was now in full progress, with all services “back up and running” – however there was some reduced clinic-based capacity. There were several challenges relating to the estate of the Hollybank unit and it was not yet fully operational. It was hoped that within the next two weeks, overnight stays could resume (any of which had been lost would be made up), and in the meantime day breaks were being provided for families.

The Chief Executive Officer noted that historically, the staff uptake of the flu vaccination had been quite low. However, only two weeks into the current programme, 36% of the workforce had already received their vaccinations. As these vaccinations were more important than ever this year, the patient reference group had been enlisted to provide some quotes, and share stories of why they felt healthcare professionals should get the flu jab.

Members were advised that the Bromley Healthcare 0-19 service had gone live, as planned, on the 1^st October 2020. A socially distanced induction day had taken place to welcome the new team members to the organisation, all of whom had been provided with laptops and iPhones to carry out their roles.

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