Report of Manchester Health and Care System Partner Organisations

The Manchester Health Scrutiny Committee requested an extraordinary meeting to discuss the issues experienced by Manchester residents in accessing health and care services over the winter period (2022/23).

This report focusses on setting out the challenging operating environment this winter, including high demand across all sectors, increased covid, Flu and strep A infections, industrial action and high staff sickness rates. It will then set out the work undertaken, as part of wider winter planning, to ensure people continue to have access to the services they need when they need them and it will cover those areas requested by the committee, namely:

·         A&E waiting times

·         Ambulance waiting times

·         Patient discharge from acute hospital settings

·         Waiting times for those patients’ requiring elective and cancer treatment

·         Access to vaccination

The Committee considered the report of the Manchester Health and Care System Partner Organisations that described that the Health Scrutiny Committee had requested an extraordinary meeting to discuss the issues experienced by Manchester residents in accessing health and care services over the winter period (2022/23).

Key points and themes in the report included:

·         Setting out the challenging operating environment this winter, including high demand across all sectors, increased Covid, Flu and strep A infections, industrial action and high staff sickness rates;

·         Describing the work undertaken, as part of wider winter planning, to ensure people continued to have access to the services they needed when they needed them; and

·         Specific information requested by the Committee in relation to:

·                     A&E waiting times

·                     Ambulance waiting times

·                     Patient discharge from acute hospital settings

·                     Waiting times for those patients requiring elective and cancer treatment

·                     Access to vaccination

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were: -

·         The Committee thanked all NHS workers for their continued commitment to supporting Manchester residents;

·         Recognising the unprecedented pressure placed on the already fragile health and social care system by the pandemic;

·         Describing the local and national situation as a crisis, resulting from years of underfunding from government;

·         Recognising the pressures this had placed on all staff working across this sector;

·         Highlighting the stark statistic detailed within the report that people in Manchester were disproportionately affected by the pandemic, with mortality rates more than 25% higher than the national average;

·         The Committee would be seeking an urgent meeting with Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to discuss the concerns raised by the Members on behalf of the residents of Manchester;

·         How could patients access Virtual Wards;

·         Would the Surge Resilience Hubs continue to be delivered, noting the positive impact these had on facilitating increased numbers of GP appointments;

·         What types of treatment did the Same Day Emergency Care cover;

·         Clarification was sought regarding the data in relation to Ambulance hand over times and how this was reported in the paper;

·         Noting that delays in Ambulance hand overs resulted in crews being delayed and unable to respond to other patients;

·         Further information and an assurance was sought on the validation exercise, of which 10% of those who responded back had opted to be removed from the waiting list; 

·         A&E Departments needed to have appropriate facilities to support those patients attending who presented experiencing a mental health crisis; and

·         Further information was sought on the M-Thrive programme and how schools could access this support.

In introducing the report, the Director of Public Health advised that all partners contributed to the GM SORT meetings that were described in the paper and they currently met three times per week. In response to a Member’s question he advised that these meetings would continue in some form under the new Integrated Care Board arrangements.

The Group Director of Strategy, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust described that, whilst it was recognised that Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.