The Improvement and Scrutiny Committee - Health met on Monday 09 December 2024. The meeting was scheduled to include a verbal report from East Midlands Ambulance Service about their performance and an update on the progress of the Integrated Care Board's (ICB) five year Joint Forward Plan strategy document. It was also scheduled to receive the minutes of the previous meeting, receive public questions, and consider its work programme.

East Midlands Ambulance Service

The committee was scheduled to receive a verbal report on the performance of the East Midlands Ambulance Service. The report pack included a presentation that was to be given to the committee. The presentation suggests that the service was experiencing increased pressure because of demand from an increasing number of more seriously ill people. It states that, while responses to those calls remained at expected levels, it was taking crews longer to hand patients over at hospitals, and that this was leading to longer waits for ambulances to become available to respond to calls. The presentation goes on to say:

12087 hours lost April - October 24 [because of hospital handover delays].

The presentation continues by saying that this is the equivalent of more than four additional twelve-hour ambulance crews being unavailable each day. The presentation goes on to summarise the service's plans to improve performance.

Integrated Care Board Joint Forward Plan Strategy

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the ICB's five year Joint Forward Plan¹ strategy document.

The strategy document attached to the report suggests that its aim is to set out how the NHS will:

become more (i) preventative in nature; (ii) personalised for the citizen; (iii) intelligence led and (iv) with services integrated by design.

The strategy document identifies the challenges faced by the NHS, saying:

Over the last 18 months, the ICS has experienced several financial pressures including inflation running ahead of the funding made available by NHS England; Industrial action which hampered service productivity; and part funding of pay award and equal pay for healthcare support workers.

The document goes on to summarise the progress made so far, and the challenges still faced by the service.