The Joined Up Care Derbyshire Board held its first meeting in public as a newly-appointed Integrated Care System. The Board heard updates on the ongoing NHS England discussion about giving ICS’s more statutory powers, along with emerging thoughts on how provider collaboration and can be further developed at scale across service and in place across communities. The continued development of relationships with partners across our communities is of utmost importance, and will be the key to the success of our collaborative work. The discussion on the building blocks of our integration of health and care will continue to be developed in the coming weeks and months.
Covid -19 and System Pressures Update
The Board heard a comprehensive update on the position of the Derbyshire health and care system in its response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Caution and concern remains within the system about the incidence of infections and admissions. There is some suggestion that the numbers are rising less steeply, but we cannot be complacent at this stage.
There are significant operational pressures arising from the pandemic, and we have needed to postpone some of our operations and outpatient appointments, as well as taking steps to release additional staff to help manage our critical care services. Also inevitable has been the rise in staff absence as a result of Covid-19. The efforts of staff to maintain services have been incredible, and the Board expressed its gratitude to everyone who has been maintaining care at this challenging time.
Our vaccination programme has been rolling out since before Christmas, with three hospital hubs now vaccinating health and social care staff, and 15 primary care hubs vaccinating both staff and members of the public in the upper age categories. We have further hospital hubs and some pharmacy hubs starting soon and Derbyshire is currently performing favourably in relation to other counties in the Midlands in terms of vaccinations given. This has been a significant effort and the Board expressed its thanks to everyone who has managed, staffed and volunteered at these hubs to ensure our population can receive this vaccination at the earliest opportunity.
Derbyshire Response to the Okenden Report
The Derbyshire Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) has responded to Donna Okendon’s first report, “Emerging Findings and Recommendations from the Independent Review of Maternity Services at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust”, which was published 11 December 2020.
This review is focusing on all reported cases of maternal and neonatal harm between the years 2000 and 2019 at Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust. These include cases of stillbirth, neonatal death, maternal death, hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) (grades 2 and 3) and other severe complications in mothers and newborn babies. The report makes for difficult reading and highlights the deep and lasting impact on those families who have lost loved ones, and those who continue to live with the injury and trauma caused.
All NHS Trusts have been required to implement seven immediate and essential actions on matters of safety, listening to women and families, staff training, managing complex pregnancy risk assessment, monitoring foetal wellbeing and informed consent. Derbyshire is either compliant or partially compliant across all areas and the current action plan is available on the JUCD website. The reports provide evidence of compliance with these immediate actions from the following Providers in addition to the Derbyshire Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) response:
- University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHSFT
- Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHSFT
- Derbyshire Healthcare NHSFT
- East Midland Ambulance NHSFT
Our responses will form part of an overall presentation of all NHS Trust responses which will be presented and discussed at the NHSEI Public Board in January 2021 when the report and immediate and longer-term actions will be considered.