This meeting included an overview of winter planning across North Central London, as well as updates on the ongoing collaboration between the Whittington Health NHS Trust and the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and a finance update for NCL.

Winter Planning

The Committee was scheduled to receive an overview of 2024/25 winter planning in North Central London. The report pack for the meeting included a summary of the planning process. This began with an analysis of progress against the 2-Year Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan, across acute, mental health and community providers. A system event was then held with senior operational and clinical representatives from across the NCL ICS to:

“Link regional priorities to local intentions. Ensure joined-up working across the system and understanding of interdependencies. Test system resilience to identify enhancement actions. Identify how we use RAiDR ¹ (digital platform) to move to a more proactive model. Agree how we optimise existing resources in the context of limited or non-available funding.”

The output from this work was a refined version of the previous year’s dynamic plan (the “Winter Playbook”). It incorporated the priorities set out in NHS England’s UEC Recovery Plan and the Ten High Impact Interventions, and included outputs from the system event. Data analysis was then undertaken to identify trends and to plan the interventions to be delivered.

The Winter Playbook on a page details a proactive approach to preventing ill health and better managing existing health conditions across the NCL area. It focusses on:

• “Primary care actions targeted at the most vulnerable
• Helping people to stay well via vaccination programme and use of Pharmacy First ²
• Reducing conveyancing from care homes
• Reducing ambulance conveyances to hospitals
• Reducing pressures on Emergency Departments by supporting patients with urgent but non-life-threatening conditions
• Increasing infection prevention and control to maintain bed capacity and flow.”

Further details were also included about the Your Local Health Team campaign. This campaign aims to:

• “improve trust and understanding among residents and stakeholders that the Integrated Care System in North Central London is taking action to improve the health of local people.
• improve recognition and understanding of the breadth of local services on offer to support the health and wellbeing of residents
• provide information to support residents to feel confident about how to improve their health and access appropriate services”

The campaign includes a dedicated webpage, social media assets, outdoor advertising, adverts in council magazines, co-branded leaflets and local activities delivered by a team of Community Champions.

UCLH/Whittington Collaboration

The Committee was scheduled to receive an overview of the ongoing collaboration between the Whittington Health NHS Trust and the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The report pack explained that a collaboration between the two organisations was first formalised in 2017, and that since then they have worked together in a number of areas including community services, paediatric dentistry, pathology, cancer, orthopaedics, general surgery, medical training, red cell haematology and tuberculosis screening. A Partnership Development Committee was established in May 2023 to create a long term vision for the partnership, and a programme team was established in May 2024.

The following vision and objectives for the partnership are included in the report pack:

Vision To use our collective strengths to improve the health of our community and deliver excellent patient care for our combined population. Objectives

• Enhance patient outcomes
• Improve access and experience
• Reduce duplication and unwarranted variation
• Improve staff resilience & create a flexible workforce so both organisations are better equipped to address external pressures

The following five priority workstreams have been identified for the collaboration:

1. Successfully deliver a joint theatre capacity plan
2. Increase community provision from Whittington Health
3. Modernise cancer services at Whittington Health
4. Establish resilient gynaecology pathways across UCLH & Whittington Health
5. Establish a joint outpatient dispensing service across UCLH and Whittington Health

The report pack for the meeting includes a detailed analysis of each of these five areas.

Finance Update

The Committee was scheduled to receive a finance update for NCL. The report pack for the meeting explains that although there has been a demonstrable improvement in the overall financial position for NCL, the current forecast remains a deficit of £111.1m.

“This is a significant reduction from the plan for the year which was a deficit of £186.7m. The improvement has been driven by non-recurrent funding, including £45.2m to support the cost of living and £11.2m for addressing long waits.”

The report pack for the meeting includes a more detailed breakdown of the finances for each of the NCL Hospital Trusts.