Issue - meetings

The Board resolved:-

to note the Chair’s remarks.

The Chair extended a warm welcome to everyone. She acknowledged the current increased pressures and demand in the health and care system across the north east and the country as a whole.

The Chair reported that by building on the delivery of the IJB Strategic Plan, ACHSCP colleagues were bringing a renewed focus on the task of increasing capacity in the system, with initiatives (1) to ensure that wherever possible the health and care needs of residents were met at the earliest opportunity to prevent people from becoming acutely ill and requiring inpatient hospital treatment; (2) discharging people from hospital to an appropriate setting as soon as was appropriate; and (3) freeing up capacity in hospital settings by introducing additional interim beds in care homes.  The Chair noted that early indications were that these initiatives were making a positive difference and she expressed her thanks to all staff across the health and social care system for continuing to meet the challenges nearly three years after the start of the pandemic.

The Chair advised that teams were continuing to listen to colleagues and service users to respond to concerns to coordinate efforts with partners, to enhance communications with the public and to capture the learnings from the experience.  She stated that doing this would ensure we come out of this difficult period with important learnings and actions which would strengthen our system for the months and years ahead and help build a more sustainable health and care system.

The Chair noted that agenda items of the Carers’ Strategy, Annual Procurement Workplan and Grant Funding arrangements were important elements of how to build that sustainable system which was community focused and informed by experience to date, the views of local people and staff.

The Board resolved:-

to note the Chair’s remarks.