Agenda item

6.1.        The Committee considered a report on the NHS response to Covid-19 in East Sussex and the ongoing impact on NHS services for East Sussex residents.

6.2.        The Committee suggested avoiding using the Astra Zeneca vaccine at pop up sites due to the reluctance of some to use that particular vaccine.

6.3.        Darrell Gale, Director of Public Health, said the vaccination programme aims to respond to intelligence and insight to ensure pop up sites are as effective as possible. He said he would feed back this suggestion to the Vaccine Board to see whether it is possible to increase the mix of vaccines available. He added that some of the information on the storage and use of the Pfizer vaccine is being revised to make it easier to use and more viable for use outside of hospitals. The Director of Public Health argued it was important to see vaccine hesitancy as people wanting questions to be answered and not as a refusal to be vaccinated.

6.4.        The Committee asked whether children suffering from asthma are being told to go home to test if they come to school with an asthmatic cough.

6.5.        Darrell Gale said that schools were aware of the risk of the Delta variant of COVID-19 but were also keen to ensure children remain in education. The Public Health Team is working with Test and Trace colleagues to determine what the best use of testing technology is to ensure that children with apparent symptoms can get back into education as quickly as possible. Any solution will be co-developed with school leaders, as they know pupils very well and the Public Health Team has developed a pragmatic working relationship with them over the past 16 months of the pandemic.

6.6.        The Committee asked what is being done to vaccinate the homeless and rough sleepers.

6.7.        Darrell Gale said his Team is working closely with the Rough Sleepers Initiative; homeless officers in the five district and borough councils; and voluntary organisations to vaccinate the homeless and rough sleeper population, for example, vaccinating them as part of a suite of support alongside the hotel accommodation provided to them as part of the ‘Everyone In’ initiative. This is a continual process, however, as the cohort is a constantly changing population, with people going in and out of the county, especially the Eastbourne and Hastings. This also makes it challenging to track down those needing a second dose.

6.8.        The Committee asked where the three mental health support teams established in schools were located and where iRock is located.

6.9.        Jonathan Beder, Transformation Director, Operational Services at SPFT, explained that the iRock is a nationally recognised drop in model for young people that has been running for some time in Hastings and also now has sites in Eastbourne and Newhaven. There are now three Mental Health Support Teams in Schools and a fourth team is being established. This will increase coverage across East Sussex from 30% to just under 40% of pupils across 11 primary and secondary schools in Peacehaven, Newhaven, Eastbourne. Hailsham, Bexhill and Hastings.

6.10.      The Committee asked for statistics on usage of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) since the pandemic, including waiting times and referral numbers.

6.11.      Jonathan Beder said that he would provide the Committee with the details separately but there has been a substantial increase in demand and waiting times in the past year. This will be mitigated through use of a portion of the additional £34m investment in mental health from the CCG to expand CAMHS.

6.12.      The Committee asked how ESHT was catching up with its surgery backlog.

6.13.      Joe Chadwick-Bell, Chief Executive of ESHT, said that the recovery programme was focused across all services, but specifically reported on cancer care and wider elective services:

• Cancer care services – the aim was to recover the 62-day referral to treatment time for cancer back to 85% by August this year and the programme is ahead of schedule, the standard was hit in April 2021 and November 2020. Referrals from GPs have returned to pre-pandemic levels. The Chief Executive clarified that the Trust did not stop cancer care during the pandemic but performance was affected by staff absence due to COVID-19 and lower productivity because of the infection control policies in place, particularly in diagnostics.
• Wider elective services – the target is for a 5% increase in activity per month up to 85% of a baseline of 2019/20 activity by September 2021. This Trust is ahead of schedule in delivering this plan. Joe Chadwick-Bell clarified why the aim was not for 100% of baseline activity because some of the patients who have waited for longer now require more complex procedures that take longer to perform than comparative cohort of patients would have in 2019/20 [additional note: where activity can be delivered above target, this is being done]. She assured the Committee that all patients on the waiting list for diagnostics, planned inpatient and outpatient appointments have been clinically assessed and prioritised according need. The highest priority patients are classed as P2 and the trust aims to provide them with surgery within 5 weeks – as well as those who have waited over 52 weeks, of which there are 140. Both categories are reducing in number and there are now half the number waiting over 52 weeks.

6.14.      The Committee asked which medical specialities in East Sussex are under the most pressure through the restoration and recovery programme.

6.15.      Joe Chadwick-Bell said that the immediate priority areas for ESHT are Ear, Nose and Throat Services (ENT), ophthalmology and orthopaedics. Each NHS trust across the whole of Sussex has its own pressures, however, there is strong working amongst the trusts to ensure they are supported.

6.16.      The Committee RESOLVED to:

1) note the report;

2) request additional details of CAMHS referral rates and wait times, and details of innovations to improve the service to be circulated by email; and

3) agree that a report on the East Sussex restoration and recovery programme, including at speciality level, will be provided in due course.