Decision details

17.1     The Board considered a report by the Chief Executive providing an update on the progress to date on delivering the East Sussex Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2013-2016.

17.2     The Board discussion included the following topics:

·         Length of stay at hospital – The strategy target: “reduce the time they spend in hospital”, was given a “red” rating in the progress report; it was pointed out that this was a national issue and length of stay for patients varied between Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) areas. A number of initiatives were being undertaken to reduce length of stay for patients at hospital including integrated locality teams and Health and Social Care Connect (HSCC) – developed as part of the East Sussex Better Together (ESBT) programme – and co-ordinating and focussing hospital discharge plans around the 2% of patients who take up 15-18% of emergency hospital admissions.

·         Hospital admissions for falls – The target “Reduce the rate of older people admitted to hospital due to falls” had gone from rated “green” to “red”. This is a long standing issue in East Sussex; health and social care providers are trying different solutions, for example, setting up a Joint Community Rehabilitation Service; and developing a business case for improved community therapy, including falls and fracture prevention, from 2016/17. Less successful solutions – like ‘Otego’ exercise classes – have been discontinued.

·         Winter planning – The CCGs prepare throughout the year for crises and escalation and have robust winter resilience plans in place that are developed and monitored by a multi-disciplinary System Resilience Group. The CCGs are confident that their winter resilience plans are robust enough to cope with pressures in all but exceptional circumstances – such as during incidents of high staff sickness or ward closures due to outbreaks of illness.

17.3     The Board RESOLVED to:

1) agree that it had considered and commented on the report; and

2) agree the proposed amendment and deletion to measures and targets at paragraph 4.1 and 4.2.