The Health and Adults Care Scrutiny Panel received a report on Adult Social Care's performance and heard a presentation about the future of the London Ambulance Service. No decisions were made at this meeting.

Adult Social Care Performance

Councillors received a report on the performance of Adult Social Care.

The report showed that performance against many key metrics had improved. For example, the number of people waiting longer than 4 weeks to be discharged from hospital had fallen significantly:

The number of customers waiting in hospital for a care package or placement who have experienced a delay of more than 4 weeks has continued to decrease in quarter 4, with 13 customers waiting (5.8%). This is a 50% decrease compared to the same period last year when there were 26 customers.

— Hounslow Council, Public reports pack Monday 08-Jul-2024 19.30 Health and Adults Care Scrutiny Panel

However, there were concerns raised that some people were leaving the care system altogether:

there’s been a drop off in terms of the people presenting or needing the service and that could be attributed to various reasons…and one of them being potentially people not wanting to access the care system, which obviously then leads to an increased risk

— Caroline Chan, Interim Strategic Director of Adult Social Care, Public reports pack Monday 08-Jul-2024 19.30 Health and Adults Care Scrutiny Panel

Future of the London Ambulance Service

The panel were addressed by Daniel Elkeles, Chief Executive of the London Ambulance Service.

Mr Elkeles set out the challenges facing the ambulance service, including a 25% increase in the number of calls in the last 5 years, and a failure to meet response time targets:

The average person in London that rings 999, we get to them in nine and a half minutes on average. That’s not two minutes and nine and a half minutes; that’s nine and a half minutes on average and, of course, if you’re the person who’s waiting for five hours for an ambulance because your leg isn’t broken and you could actually get yourself to hospital, but nobody told you that’s what you should have done and there wasn’t an ambulance available for five hours, you don’t feel very good about our service and I don’t blame you and we’ve got to do better on that.

— Daniel Elkeles, Chief Executive, London Ambulance Service, Public reports pack Monday 08-Jul-2024 19.30 Health and Adults Care Scrutiny Panel

Mr Elkeles also outlined some of that changes that had been made to improve the service, including the introduction of new technology and the recruitment of more staff.