The Health & Adult Social Care Select Committee met to review the performance and strategic direction of two key healthcare providers in Buckinghamshire: Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust (BHT) and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. The committee received updates on BHT's performance in 2025/26 and its priorities for 2026/27, including financial delivery, digital advancements, and estate improvements. They also discussed Oxford Health's emerging strategy for 2026-2031, focusing on patient experience, community health, and collaborative working.

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust: Key Performance and Service Quality

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust (BHT) presented its performance for 2025/26 and outlined its priorities for 2026/27. Chief Executive Officer Raghuv Bhasin, Chief Finance Officer Jon Evans, and Deputy Chief Nurse Mitchell Fernandez highlighted significant achievements, including a reduction in waiting lists for planned care, with over 1,500 patients waiting over 52 weeks in March 2025 down to fewer than 100 by March 2026. They also reported a 480-day reduction in bed days lost due to norovirus outbreaks.

The Trust has launched a new 10-year strategy aligned with the Buckinghamshire Health & Wellbeing Strategy, aiming to help people live healthier, more independent lives by shifting focus towards prevention. Key initiatives include establishing six integrated neighbourhood teams, expanding a proactive frailty service, and purchasing the Queen Victoria Road building in High Wycombe to create a neighbourhood hub. BHT also benefited from a £75.3 million capital investment, its largest in a single year, for estate infrastructure upgrades, including reconfiguring its emergency department at Stoke Mandeville and starting new building projects. Digital advancements include digitising maternity notes and implementing electronic prescribing.

Financially, BHT delivered its plan for the third consecutive year, achieving £37.9 million in efficiencies through quality improvement projects, transformation programmes, and difficult decisions like a recruitment freeze. For 2026/27, a further £38.9 million in efficiencies is targeted. The Trust is reprioritising resources to fund left-shift activities, such as proactive frailty clinics and the Joy app, to support prevention and give individuals more control over their health.

The National Staff Survey results showed strong colleague engagement, with BHT ranking in the top 20 trusts for most People Promise themes. Strengths include compassionate leadership, teamwork, and colleague wellbeing. However, areas requiring action include experiences of racial and religious discrimination and colleagues working additional unpaid hours.

The committee raised concerns about the increase in pressure ulcer incidents and the number of never events – serious, preventable incidents – within the Trust. BHT acknowledged these issues and outlined ongoing improvement programmes, including thematic reviews and working with partners to learn from individual cases. The Trust also discussed its efforts to improve maternity services, including addressing midwife sickness and investing in staffing to meet national standards.

Regarding digital inclusion, BHT acknowledged the challenge of ensuring those not on social media are not excluded. They are developing a strategy to segment patients for different engagement methods, aiming to free up capacity for those who require more personal support. The Trust is also investing in digitisation and artificial intelligence to fundamentally change its systems.

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust: Refreshed Strategy

Amélie Bage, Executive Director of Strategy, and Sam Shepherd, Deputy Director of Strategy and Planning, presented Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust's emerging strategy for 2026-2031. The strategy is being developed in line with the national NHS 10-year plan, which emphasizes shifting care from hospitals to communities, embracing digital transformation, and moving from sickness to prevention.

Oxford Health provides a wide range of mental health, learning disability, and community health services across Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, as well as specialised forensic mental health services across a broader region. The Trust has engaged extensively with colleagues, patients, carers, and partners to shape its strategy. Key themes emerging from this engagement include strong appreciation for staff, but also significant concerns about access times, referrals, and service availability. Barriers related to service location, travel, and navigating complex pathways were highlighted, alongside a need for clearer communication and smoother transitions between services. There is a clear call for greater involvement of lived experience in decision-making and accountability.

The draft strategy is built around three aims: improving the quality of life and experience of care for patients, carers, and families; helping to improve the health of people locally, nationally, and beyond; and ensuring a culture that supports colleagues to thrive. Six priorities have been identified to achieve these aims: working in partnership with patients and communities, making things simple, collaborating with partners, tackling health inequalities, fostering an inclusive working culture, and delivering high-quality care through quality improvement, innovation, and research.

Committee members provided feedback, emphasizing the need for the strategy to be more concrete and less generic, with a clear articulation of the Trust's starting point and how its outcomes connect with public feedback. Concerns were raised about the difficulty of making things simple and the need for a focused approach to prevention to avoid spreading resources too thinly. The importance of measuring the impact of prevention initiatives and addressing health inequalities, particularly for children and young people, was also stressed.

The committee also discussed the integration of services between acute and community settings, the role of neighbourhood hubs, and the need for the strategy to address the specific needs of vulnerable groups, including those with dual diagnoses and forensic patients. The potential impact of social policy and legislation, such as the Mental Health Act reforms, was also noted.

Other Matters

The committee also discussed the work programme for the next meeting, proposing items such as the Better Care Fund, Integrated Healthcare Equipment Services, and the Access to Emergency Care Review draft report. The potential inclusion of neighbourhood hubs and digital inclusion from the public's perspective were also suggested for future discussion.