To receive an update from Huw Thomas.

Huw Thomas, Clinical Chair NHS Frimley CCG, said that the pandemic was not over. GP practices were open but were still operating differently, with strict safety, infection prevention and control measures in place. However, there had still been a significant number of cases seen in practices. There had been an increase in demand for all appointments, with more patients considering their condition to be urgent. There was a backlog of routine chronic disease management including diabetes, respiratory and heart disease. An ongoing effort was to offer preventative services and GPs had continued to manage people on waiting lists to access community and secondary care services. Workforce morale and retention was difficult under current measures, with capacity stretched across a number of services including vaccinations. There had been a lot of sickness absence from staff, both Covid and non-Covid related.

Caroline Farrar, Executive Place Managing Director CCG, explained what was happening to improve patient access. Capacity had been increased with £6 million being invested to provide around 59,000 additional appointments across Frimley from October 2021 to April 2022. There had been an increase in workforce capacity and the skills mix that staff offered, while additional premises capacity had also been released. Digital support was being utilised, ensuring that patients got the right care for their needs, while telephony systems had been upgraded to further increase capacity. Caroline Farrar said that it was important that GPs continued to engage and communicate with residents, primary care networks had been supported to improve this. Population health management had been used to ensure that those that needed additional support were targeted and reduced health inequalities. Primary care networks had been developed so that scale models of care were based on local population needs.

Caroline Farrar showed some data to the Board, outlining the increase in capacity of appointments over the past couple of years, along with the overall comparison of activity levels across Frimley.

Changes had been made to GP practices, appointments could be triaged which would allow GPs to determine if a patient needed to be seen in person or whether a virtual or phone consultation was more appropriate. Receptionists were being trained to allow them to direct patients in the right direction and free up time and resource for GPs. Additional staff had been brought into each practice to better support the practice, the best person would be connected to the patient and this would not always necessarily be the GP.

Caroline Farrar concluded by saying that more appointments were available in general practice than ever before, but more people wanted and needed appointments now than before the pandemic. Colleagues were working hard to improve capacity and appointments could therefore be triaged based on clinical needs and priorities. Additional appointments were available across RBWM, in Maidenhead, Windsor and Ascot.

Huw Thomas showed a piece of communication which had been advertised to patients to show them where they needed to go if they were feeling unwell.

The Chairman agreed that the pandemic was not over and he could appreciate the pressures that GPs were currently under as a result. It was important that people still came forward for their Covid vaccine if they had not done so. The Chairman said that he was aware of residents who had struggled to get a GP appointment, he asked what residents could do to get themselves an appointment.

Huw Thomas said that patients needed to consider if they needed to see a GP. There were various methods of accessing GPs, the e-consultation process could be used as a good method of self-care. It should not be used in emergencies but could be used in a number of situations.

The Chairman said that he had recently used the e-consultation tool and found it to be very easy and useful.

Councillor Hunt said that she had heard that Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading had recently adopted a new strategy, patients were allowed only one visitor, they had to be signed in and also had to provide evidence of a negative LFT. She asked if this was also happening at Frimley.

ACTION – Caroline Farrar to find out if this strategy was also used at Frimley and report back to Councillor Hunt.

Huw Thomas said it was very sensible for visitors to hospitals to take a LFT in advance.

The Chairman was grateful for the work of GPs, particularly under the current pressures.