Agenda item

Systems Insights - How we use the data to address inequalities

To receive a presentation.

Minutes:

Nigel Foster, Director of Finance at Frimley, explained that he had led a programme which had been focused on improving the way that data was used and the insights that could be gained from data to improve the care that was provided and address some of the inequalities in the borough. The programme was called ‘Connected Care’ and it helped to improve the information that clinicians had at the point of delivering care. There were a number of different data sets across the NHS and this allowed, for example, a clinician in the emergency department to access records from a patients GP. Another positive was that it had helped to develop infrastructure which enabled residents to share information about their care and would allow monitoring of things like blood pressure or oxygen level. The data could be brought into an intelligence platform which would then allow the information to be easily analysed. This was effectively a big database but Nigel Foster provided assurance that this was safe and individual patient data was made anonymous, unless the user was a GP or a doctor looking for a specific patients data.

 

This database allowed insights about the boroughs communities to be drawn. It was clear that RBWM had a mostly affluent population but there were certain areas of deprivation. Using this data, it was clear that the highest prevalence on registers held by GPs was around obesity, followed by hypertension and depression. The age in the deprived areas was slightly younger than the overall average, while there were also more minority ethnic groups in deprived areas. There was a higher prevalence of long-term conditions in these areas too. This information would allow clinical colleagues to start thinking about how these health needs could be addressed in a slightly different way. The average number of contacts at a GP surgery was higher in deprived areas, an average of nine attendances a year compared to 7.8 across the rest of the borough. Work had been done on those residents who had diabetes, with campaigns focused on making sure that these groups were attending their GP surgery for check-ups.

 

The Chairman said that the power of data was very important and as had been shown during the presentation, there was a need to use insights to divert resources and understand the challenges at a local level.

 

Councillor Del Campo asked how the borough could help to use this data and give extra support to residents.

 

Nigel Foster said that there were strong links with the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, which would be considered later in the meeting. A number of conversations had taken place at the Place Committee around this, there was a desire to use this data and to learn from it.

 

Councillor Del Campo asked if the work Nigel Foster was doing could link in with the RBWM Communications team.

 

The Chairman said that the ward profiles were particularly important and had been used in the past when seeing where communications and engagement needed to be focused.

 

Hilary Hall, Executive Director of Adults, Health and Housing, said that there was an action plan being produced on health inequalities data but was unsure of the timescales for this piece of work. Ward profiles were important and it needed to be linked with the ward councillors too as part of the work going forward.

 

Councillor Bhangra asked what RBWM was doing in schools to help promote health and wellbeing.

 

Kevin McDaniel, Executive Director of Children’s Services, said that every young person got the support they needed whilst at school. There were specific mental health support teams available, these were trained qualified professionals who were hired by the NHS who were working alongside 14 schools in the borough. Training was given to school leaders and networks had been created for SENCOs, an area SENCO had been recruited to help promote best practise and share resources. A three-year pilot, which had been supported by the Schools Forum, was around a support service for children with social and emotional health needs. Kevin McDaniel said that all the services were part of a summary document which he was happy to circulate to the Panel for reference.

 

ACTION – Kevin McDaniel to circulate summary document containing information on wellbeing services which are provided to schools.

 

The Chairman said that the health and wellbeing of young people was very important. The Corporate Parenting Forum and the Youth Council were utilised to ensure that their opinions were heard by the council.

 

Anna Richards thanked Nigel Foster for a comprehensive presentation. She said that the insights which had been mentioned linked in with the development of the council’s Corporate Plan, which had a focus on reducing inequalities and she was keen to discuss this work with Nigel Foster.