Agenda item

Lincolnshire County Council Adult Care Winter Plan

(To receive a report by Tracy Perrett, Head of Hospitals and Special Projects, Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, which will contribute to the Adult Social Care element of the Lincolnshire Health and Care System Winter Plan 2019/20)

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report by the Assistant Director – Adult Frailty and Long Term Conditions and the Urgent Care Programme Director (Lincs Sustainability & Transformation partnership), which provided an update on the Health and Care system Winter Plan for 2019/20.

 

Members were informed that in October 2018 the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care had announced an additional £240m of additional funding for councils to spend on adult social care services to help alleviate winter pressures on the NHS.

 

Members were advised that the Winter Plan would focus on early discharge planning and after hospital care;  preventative measures to avoid people being admitted to hospital or attend emergency centres, seven day care services; Flu planning and patient choice.

 

Members were invited to ask questions, in which the following points were noted:

 

·       Officers explained that many holiday makers attended emergency centres but were not often admitted to hospital. In some cases, holidaymakers were admitted to hospital and were unable to be discharged back to their holiday residence, so arrangements would be made for them to return to their permanent residence.

·       It was noted that there would patient discharge would be a planned operation so there was unlikely to be a delayed transfer of care for patients.

·       The Urgent Care Programme Director explained that the NHS had worked with holiday providers to give information on self-care and signposting information to avoid patients unnecessarily attending emergency centres.

·       Officers confirmed that they did not have access to out-of-county patients' medical records but it was in the NHS interests' to obtain the correct information in order to give the best care possible.

·       It was confirmed that officers looked at long range weather forecasts/predictions and measures were put in place where possible.

·       Members were assured that systems were ready to go at all times in preparation for unexpected weather conditions. 

·       Members were informed that Lincolnshire there were 2% of patients that had a delayed transfer of care, which was below the national average of 6%.

·       It was noted that the whole process of discharging patients had been improved, and that the discharge process now begun from the point of admittance, with patients received an estimated discharge date on their admission, allowing families and patients to better prepare.

·       Officers acknowledged that during peak times, it could be difficult to accommodate all patients discharge requests for their preferred adult care nursing home. It was in the patient's best interest to be discharged from hospital and that was the main priority.

·       Concerns were raised by a member of the Committee that there were patients being discharged from hospital without an Occupational Therapy assessment having being carried out. The Executive Councillor for Adult Care, Health and Children's Services agreed to look into statistics surrounding this.

·       The Director of Public Health assured Members that winter care plans across the health service were as robust as possible.

·       It was confirmed that Lincolnshire County Council were responsible for organising the home care for any patients who attended a doctor's surgery within Lincolnshire, regardless of the hospital they were being treated at. 

·       Officers advised that hospitals were able to discharge patients on weekends.

·       Members were informed that the Council were working with GP's and pharmacies to ensure that they had the right level of stock and the correct information about the locations in which people could obtain a flu jab.

·       The Director of Public Health emphasised the importance of the flu jab.

·       It was confirmed that hospital pharmacies planned to be open 7 days, but this was not always possible due to staff availability.

·       It was agreed a report detailing the actual winter performance against the Winter Plan be scheduled for an appropriate meeting of the Committee.

·       It was suggested that the Winter Schemes could be communicated to the public through county news and local newspapers to further communicate the message and ensure that people were prepared.

·       Members were informed that there was work done to track the most vulnerable patients and ensure that they were supported where possible.

 

RESOLVED:

 

          That the report be noted.

 

 

 

 

Supporting documents:

 

 
 
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