Issue - meetings

30.1.      The Board considered a report providing an update on progress to date in relation to winter planning.

30.2.      The Board asked how resilient the private sector nursing and care homes are given the challenges they have faced around COVID-19.

30.3.      Mark Stainton said the majority of residential, nursing and home care is provided by the independent sector. As part of the winter plan and wider COVID-19 pandemic response, the NHS and East Sussex County Council has provided the independent sector with a significant amount of support, including a linked healthcare professional at each care home.

30.4.      The Board asked whether the care system is over reliant on private sector.

30.5.      Mark Stainton said that there is a balanced economy of care in East Sussex containing a blend of private and voluntary home and care home providers, and significant public community services provided jointly by the NHS and East Sussex County Council, such as the Joint Community Rehabilitation and Crisis Response services.

30.6.      The Board asked about the physical and staffing capacity of ESHT to deliver elective work in the hospitals as well as keeping COVID-19 patients separate.

30.7.      Isabella Davis-Fernandez, Head of System Resilience, Sussex CCGs, said a wide range of modelling of different scenarios and assumptions around non-COVID-19 and COVID-19 pressures was undertaken in order to model the number of beds and staff needed for the acute hospitals in Sussex. The Winter Plan is the plan put in place to mitigate any gap between demand and the normal available supply of beds and staff. There is fairly good confidence that the plan will get the system through the winter. Due to the increasing pressures caused by COVID-19, a piece of work is being undertaken to check that assumptions about bed numbers are still accurate. Staffing is an ongoing issue and plans include hospital sites supporting each other through mutual aid. Jessica Britton said all elective admission recovery plans are still underway and are going well according to plans and there are a number of scenario models, so the system is as well prepared as it can be.

30.8.      The Board RESOLVED to note the status of the Sussex Health and Care Partnership Winter Plan 2020-21.

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17.       

17.1.      The Board considered a report providing an update on the progress to date in relation to winter planning, outline next steps and timelines.

17.2.      Adrian Bull clarified that the Trust had not yet signed off arrangements for its acute beds that will fully cover the level of demand there might be over winter, but further discussions were due to take place at the Local Accident and Emergency Delivery Board to ensure there is capacity to meet the expected levels of demand. He added that the expanded flu campaign and Covid-19 precautions will hopefully make sure flu and other winter diseases are less prevalent than normal. It is always difficult, however, to predict winter demand.

17.3.      The Board asked whether there were plans to bring mothballed bed capacity back online to support discharges during Covid-19, in addition to Firwood House.

17.4.      Adrian Bull said that ESHT did not have further spare capacity but during the Covid-19 period had brought back online 40 beds at the Bexhill Care Centre, for use as step-down intermediate bed capacity, which have remained open and will continue to do so over the winter period.

17.5.      The Board RESOLVED to note the Winter Plan 2020/21.