Agenda item

RESOLVED: That

·         the update on the development of the Healthcare and Wellbeing Charter be noted;

·         the update on primary care access improvement and digital inclusion plan be noted;

·         that the draft Healthcare and Wellbeing Charter be presented to the Committee at its next meeting on the 6^th of September 2023.

Charles Malcolm-Smith (People and Provider Development Lead, SEL ICS) and Ashley O’Shaughnessy (Associate Director of Primary Care for Lewisham, SEL ICS) presented this item to the Committee. The following key points were noted:

5.1. As agreed at the last meeting of the committee, a framework for the proposed Charter was presented to the Lewisham Health and Care Partners’ (LHCP) Peoples Partnership Group (PPG) in May 2023 and a follow-up discussion had been scheduled for its July 2023 meeting.

5.2. In the May 2023 meeting of the PPG, it was discussed that for the proposed Charter to serve its purpose, there must be clarity on the accountability and the power that members of the population would have if its terms were not being upheld.

5.3. Important elements that were to be included in the Charter included- dignity, respect and culturally appropriate interactions, individualised and co-produced services and increased scope for self-referral to services.

5.4. The Primary Care Delivery Plan had just been signed off with the Local Care Partnership. Officers stated that they would be happy to share the full plan with the Committee as the presentation just included a summary of the plan.

5.5. The National Delivery Plan for recovering access to primary care had also recently been published and it outlined the national strategy and approach to providing support around improved patient experience.

5.6. The National Delivery Plan had four main areas of focus- empower patients; implement new Modern General Practice Access approach; build capacity and cut bureaucracy.

5.7. It was discussed that one approach to empowering patients was through increasing the use of digital technology such as improving the functionality of the NHS app. However, officers also recognised that digital inclusion was an important factor to consider, and work was already being done to address this. The Primary Care Digital Inclusion Plan was included in the papers submitted to the Committee and included some information on the different initiatives that had been taken to promote digital inclusion.

The Committee members were invited to ask questions. The following key points were noted:

5.8. A member of the Committee wanted to express gratitude for the work done by the doctors and nurses in NHS and wanted to assure them that members were aware of the pressures on the service.

5.9. Members of the Committee agreed that digital inclusion was an important issue and expressed concerns around the rapid pace of digitalisation, which seemed to disproportionately exclude certain groups of people, particularly older residents.

5.10. A GP from Lewisham, Simon Parton, reassured members that although importance had been given to digital communication as a way of empowering residents, that wasn’t the only way of communication being used. Residents could still contact GPs through telephone, walk-ins, emails, referrals, contact through healthcare partners and so on. In theory, making a digital route available enhanced telephonic capacity, as individuals capable of utilising digital platforms would opt to contact their GP through those means. Consequently, this would result in reduced waiting time for callers as less people would be calling in.

5.11. It was discussed that the recruitment and retention of staff remained a significant challenge across NHS. However, a lot of work had been done to attract more nurse trainees to the borough.

5.12. A GP from Lewisham, Taj Singhrao, informed the Committee that there was a wider plan to expand the community pharmacy work, with the goal of conducting a greater portion of chronic disease monitoring through these pharmacies. This would take some pressure off the general practice and improve the chronic disease monitoring in Lewisham. However, there were capacity issues in pharmacies as well, so this work needed to ensure that any one part of the primary care system was not being overloaded.

5.13. Officers mentioned that intensive training on cultural competency had been delivered to the staff a few years ago and acknowledged the need to re-evaluate and potentially revisit that training.

5.14. It was discussed that the People’s Partnership Group was an important forum for the development of the Healthcare and Wellbeing Charter. Nigel Bowness further expressed Healthwatch Lewisham’s desire for increased direct public engagement in shaping the Charter.

5.15. The Chair of the Committee enquired when the Committee would be able to see the draft Charter and it was discussed that September 2023 was an achievable deadline. The Healthcare and Wellbeing Charter as well as the Health and Wellbeing Strategy were due to go to the Health and Wellbeing Board in September 2023 as well.

RESOLVED: That

·         the update on the development of the Healthcare and Wellbeing Charter be noted;

·         the update on primary care access improvement and digital inclusion plan be noted;

·         that the draft Healthcare and Wellbeing Charter be presented to the Committee at its next meeting on the 6^th of September 2023.