To receive a presentation from the NHS East Berkshire CCG.

Rachel Wakefield, NHS, gave a presentation to the Panel. Rachel Wakefield gave the Panel a little background of the meaning of urgent care and the purpose of this work. It was explained that ‘Urgent Care’  is not really understood by people. The real meaning of ‘Urgent Care’ is that you need urgent attention but it was not life threatening on that day. The team wanted to try and understand what people needed and wanted and why they currently used the services they used. The team were in discussions with the Consultation Institute to understand processes and procedures.

The presentation highlighted types and locations of urgent care services for the future and different service models. Rachel Wakefield discussed all the points that the team wanted to understand, including why people choose a particular urgent care service, what people would do if they were told that an issue was not urgent, would the use of technology be supported and what was good about and what could be improved in the current service.

The team wanted to understand all the different groups, they required support from scrutiny, health and wellbeing boards and partners. There would be six public discussions between 31 May and 29 June and there would be provider meetings that would include GPs.

An issues paper was currently being drafted. This would be used as the basis for all communications. It would identify why things needed to change, engagement already taken, questions asked to the public and decisions that needed to be taken. There would be a virtual patient panel to check the language and comprehension.

Councillor Yong informed the Panel that the name of the unit was very important, the public were against the name ‘urgent care’, the name ‘minor injury’ was more preferred. Since this was not listened to, the public may not engage again. Due to the change, all experienced nurses left. Now anyone attending the urgent care  department were sent to the A and E department of the hospital. Rachel Wakefield informed the Panel that a specific programme  of work was going to be carried out which was to avoid sending people to A & E and to try and treat the patient on site.

The technology for the future was discussed by the Panel. Rachel Wakefield informed the Panel that they would be looking for a system that would have all detailed information/history about a person so it could be all known before treating them on the spot. The 111 system was recommissioned last September in order to have phased pathways now where a patient could speak to a clinician who could book appointments with a range of services such as midwifes, mental health, pharmacists and dental. Rachel Wakefield informed the Panel that from July 2018, there would be 111 Online and in the future there would be an opportunity to talk directly to a GP. Many different ways were being tested.

Councillor Diment raised three points, what was a virtual patient panel and was informed that this is when patients come forward who have knowledge on health and feedback on all information. The second point that Councillor Diment raised was that health services were not joined up causing confusion for all. There were some very sophisticated systems which were already being used and we could learn from. The final point raised by Councillor Diment was who would the team be engaging in discussions and how would they be engaged? Rachel Wakefield informed the Panel that the team had no preconceived ideas, they wanted to engage anyone and everyone. They would be publicising on their website, through the patient panel, through patient leads, charity groups and health groups. It was very important to try and reach all patients.

Rachel Wakefield was asked how was the uptake of the weekend appointment system at St Marks Hospital in Maidenhead. It was reported that the uptake was not very good and this was because not many residents knew about this system. However, further work was going to be carried out on signage to inform residents.

ACTION: Dates of consultations to be circulated to Panel