The Committee considered a report on the North Central London (NCL) Integrated Care Board's (ICB) Start Well Programme, which included proposals to reduce the number of maternity and neonatal units in NCL from five to four. There was a preference from the ICB to close the units at the Royal Free Hospital and retain them at the Whittington Hospital. There were concerns from Islington Councillors that, if the Whittington Hospital was to lose its maternity and neonatal services, this would have a detrimental impact on other services provided at the Hospital. There were also concerns expressed about how best to reach out to seldom heard groups who would be affected by the proposals, including the Bangladeshi community. A proposal to close the birthing suites at Edgware Community Hospital, was also discussed.

The Committee also received a presentation about the new Access Islington Hubs initiative which aimed to provide residents with wraparound advice and support in key areas, such as money, food, wellbeing, housing and community safety. These services would be delivered from three sites in the Borough: 222 Upper Street, Finsbury Library and Manor Gardens, with the latter site due to open in June 2024. The Committee was particularly interested to hear how these services would complement the work of councillors and, in particular, how the new services would reduce the need for residents to make multiple contacts with different Council services.

The Committee also discussed a report on the performance of University College London Hospital (UCLH), including a presentation from Simon Knight, Director of Planning and Performance, and Liz O’Hara, Director of Workforce. The Committee heard how the Hospital had performed against its key targets, in particular with regard to waiting times for treatment and the levels of MRSA and Clostridium difficile at the Hospital. The impact of strike action on the ability of the Hospital to meet its targets was also discussed, as were the ways in which the Hospital was working to improve the health, wellbeing and morale of its staff.

Finally, the Committee considered a report on Public Health performance for the second quarter of 2023/24. The Committee heard how there had been an overall increase in the number of people accessing alcohol and drug treatment services and an increase in the number of successful completions of treatment. It was noted that the performance of Islington’s stop smoking service had improved since the previous quarter but was still lower than in the same period last year. Performance on other key indicators, including the percentage of eligible people receiving an NHS Health Check and uptake of the NHS Healthy Start Scheme was also discussed.