Agenda item

Joanne Baxter Chief Operating Officer, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Gateshead, will provide the OSC with a presentation on this matter.

Joanne Baxter, Chief Operating Officer, Gateshead Health NHS FT, provided the OSC with an overview on what had worked well during the Trust’s response to the Covid 19 pandemic; how the Trust had developed new ways of working as a result of their Covid 19 experiences and how the Trust intended to deliver its recovery programme.

The following were highlighted as key areas which had worked well:-

·         The Trust had established and demonstrated strong collective leadership from the early days of its response.

·         The Trust developed an early understanding that consistent, coordinated internal and external communication was pivotal to the Trust’s response and recovery

·         Recognition that the health, well-being and welfare of the Trust’s own staff was directly linked to ensuring the quality and safety of services for patients

·         Quickly supporting GHNFT staff with equipment and technology, where appropriate, to work from home.

·         Using established procedures, protocols, networks and relationships as a strong foundation to build the evolving collective COVID response.

·         Being able to tap-in to the long-established Gateshead culture, that in time of crisis, individuals, teams, agencies and communities come together to work beyond their normal roles and remit, to support response 

Joanne advised that during March 2020 the Trust had made changes to the provision of services to support the release of capacity to manage Covid presentations These included reduction of outpatients, diagnostics and routine elective work. Implementing these changes had supported:

·         Provision of increased physical space

·         Release of staff to critical areas & supporting new ways of working

·         Management of increased sickness / absence / track & trace

·         Reduced unnecessary attendances at the Trust

During this time patient safety remained paramount and staff health and wellbeing had played a vital role.

It was considered that staff at the Trust had done a remarkable job of managing the Covid-19 pandemic with significant limitations in staffing, beds, managing surge capacity, PPE, oxygen, and dealing with trauma.

As a result of the pandemic, new ways of working had been developed which included:-

·         Recognition that all of the Trust’s previous service provision now requires Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) considerations

·         Enhancing a robust 24/7/365 Management On-Call procedure to ensure the Trust can support an agile response to surge and operational pressures

·         Establishing a new, robust, Operational Pressure Escalation Level (OPEL) procedure to consistently assess risk and to anticipate impacts via coordinated and targeted mitigation.

·         Embedding a single, flexible, Trust Command, Control and Coordination (C3) Escalation model, to bring together operational, tactical and strategic resources to collaboratively make informed decisions in response.

·         Setting-up a Support Cell Network to assess specific areas of COVID risk to provide key information and recommendations to facilitate management decision-making.

Joanne also highlighted that the Trust had led on a number of innovations including:-

·         different ways of working, use of technology, provision of enhanced roles across the workforce and changes to clinical pathways. 

·         Streaming patients in the Emergency Department to manage safety

·         Virtual telephone and triage

·         Upskilling staff to support different clinical areas e.g. critical care

·         Implementation of 7 day working across the Trust including corporate Information / OD People etc.

·         Home working and use of technology at home

·         Support and wellbeing for staff

·         Volunteers supporting ‘remote’ visiting on the wards using i.pads

The Trust plans to deliver recovery through implementation of a new operating model whereby the Trust

·         has re-based the hospital bed foot-print and workforce requirements matching capacity to demand.

·         Is protecting elective beds in support of reducing waiting lists.

·         Is implementing Same Day Emergency Care with a view to reducing avoidable admissions.

·         Is integrating Urgent & Emergency Care in the Emergency Department to maximise patient pathways.

The Committee was advised that elective referrals into the hospital were around pre-covid levels. However, urgent and cancer referrals currently exceed pre-covid levels.

Despite reduced inhouse capacity the Trust is striving to deliver as much elective capacity as possible to reduce patient backlogs in waiting times and is using the independent sector where appropriate.

Joanne highlighted that the Trust continues to face challenges and further risks of Covid waves, track & trace etc. Joanne also noted that footfall through the emergency department is not at pre-covid levels and the Trust still faces IPC constraints/social distancing measures front of house.

Joanne indicated that the Trust is prioritising its urgent and cancer patients first and aims to eradicate its long waits by March 2022.

The Committee thanked Joanne for the update and expressed its thanks to all the Trust’s staff for the tremendous work they had carried out during the pandemic and congratulated the Trust on continuing to make some improvements to the provision of services for the benefit of patients during this time.

RESOLVED

i)             That the information be noted.

ii)            That the Committee place on record its thanks to all the Trust’s staff for the tremendous work they had carried out during the pandemic and continuing to make improvements to the provision of service for the benefit of patients during this time.