Decision details

3.1     Martin Wilkinson (Chief Officer Lewisham CCG) gave a presentation to the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·       Lewisham Health & Care Partners work together on the integration of health and adult social care. The relevant partners are Lewisham Clinical Commissioning Group, Lewisham Council, Primary Care and local GPs, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

·       Lewisham Health & Care Partners have the following shared vision:  To achieve a viable and sustainable ‘One Lewisham Health and Social Care System’ that will enable the local population to maintain and improve their physical and mental wellbeing, enable independent living, and have access to person-centred, evidence-informed, high quality, yet cost-effective pro-active care, when it is needed.

·       The partners have been engaging with service users on their views of the services provided to ensure the right services are offered at the right place.

·       Neighbourhood care networks are being created to provide care and support for residents closer to home. The networks will bring together individuals from different services and agencies to coordinate care for adults. There is separate work going on for care provided to children and young people.

·       There will be four networks across Lewisham, which will map onto the existing four GP neighbourhoods in the borough. The networks will also be aligned with the existing adult mental health teams. 

·       Sites are being identified to place the network team. The Waldron Health Centre has been identified as the first site for one of the network teams to operate from.

·       The work on neighbourhood care networks is the same work as the Local Care Networks/ Community Based Care, being promoted through the Our Healthier South East London (OHSEL) programme.

3.2     Martin Wilkinson, Tim Higginson (Chief Executive, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust) and Aileen Buckton (Executive Director for Community Services) responded to questions from the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·       There is engagement with community pharmacies in Lewisham around the programme of health and adult social care integration. There is a trial on-going to see if pharmacists could work in GP practices. In addition, the CCG promotes “walk-in-my-shoes” days where GP’s and pharmacists get the opportunity to shadow each other’s roles for a day. 

·       Recently the Lewisham Integrated Medicines Optimisation Service (LIMOS) was recognised in the Value in Healthcare Awards 2015. Under LIMOS, pharmacies work together with GP’s and social services to support patients with long-term conditions to manage their medicines.

·       Any patient treated by a neighbourhood care network will have to sign up to a protocol before any of their data can be shared amongst the participating agencies. Patients always have the right to opt of this agreement. The sharing of data about patients between agencies will make it easier for health and care professionals to provide appropriate care and creates better outcomes for patients. Work is currently underway through Connect Care to enable data sharing.

·       A map of the GP neighbourhoods would be provided to the Committee and the partners are working towards producing a map which shows where all the relevant services are located in the borough.

·       Patients who are being discharged from hospital with serious conditions will often get a more flexible and personalised care package from social services for the immediate future. After the rehabilitation period, care workers will assess their long-term care needs and identify a care package to support residents in the long-term.

·       The Community connections work is modelled on the same areas as the neighbourhood care networks. Support workers will take referrals from GP’s and social workers. They will then, based on an individual’s needs and preferences, advise about relevant voluntary sector organisations that can offer support and provide activities. 

·       It is a requirement of the Care Act that the Council provides a website which lists information on what providers of care exist in the community. The Council’s website will be developed to be fully interactive. It currently contains information uploaded by the voluntary sector and gives links to relevant websites hosted by the voluntary sector. The website is intended to become the first port of call for people for self-referral to services and self-assessment for care needs. The next phase of the website is due to go live in April 2016. The Council is working with relevant advice agencies to provide the best possible content.

RESOLVED: to note the presentation, and to receive a map of Neighbourhood Care Networks based on GP populations.