The Inner North East London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee met to discuss health updates, finances, and cancer services in the region. The meeting included a review of the scrutiny report and a deep dive into cancer-related issues. Councillors were also scheduled to discuss actions to be carried out by officers.

Health Updates

The committee was scheduled to receive a general health update from Zina Etheridge, Chief Executive, NHS North East London. The update included:

• The launch of a new careers hub designed to help residents explore careers in adult social care and health. The hub was intended to provide access to skills assessments, guides to qualifications, and employment opportunities.
• Information on medication shortages, specifically regarding medications for ADHD and pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT). Actions being taken in north east London included working with pharmacies, GPs, and hospitals to ensure patients get the medicines they need, providing advice to prescribers on alternative treatments, importing PERT from other countries, and working with specialist teams in hospitals to support prescribers in GP practices and community pharmacies.
• Results from a staff survey, which showed a positive shift in staff appraisals, recommendations of the organisation as a place to work, team objectives, and views of managers. Areas for continued focus included health and wellbeing, bullying and harassment, and support for staff with protected characteristics.
• Changes to Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), including a reduction in size and a merger into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The report stated that a fundamental rethink of the operating model would be needed, and that it would be extremely challenging to achieve this within the new resource limit.
• Good news stories from North East London, including awards and new services.
• Updates from Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Barts Health NHS Trust on operational performance, corporate activity, finance, planning, people, research, and innovation.

Finance Overview

The committee was scheduled to discuss the financial position of the NHS North East London Integrated Care System (NEL ICS). According to a report prepared by Henry Black, Chief Finance Officer, NHS North East London, the key points for discussion were:

• The year-to-date ICS deficit was £91.5 million, with a forecast deficit of £125 million. Additional resources of £45 million were provided by NHS England, reducing the expected year-end deficit to £80 million.
• Key pressures at a system level included efficiency and cost improvement, run rate pressures in mental health and acute providers, and pay costs.
• The 2025/26 operating plan assumptions support financial recovery, with a cost uplift factor of 4.15% and a 2% efficiency requirement.
• Trusts are required to plan for a breakeven position and develop cost improvement plans, including service changes.
• Primary Care funds would receive growth of £13.9 million, a 3.26% increase, with an additional allocation of £42 million from NHS England.
• After applying the planning assumptions, every Provider with the exception of Homerton, submitted a break-even plan for the year ahead.
• Efficiencies of £367.69 million were required to deliver the plan, with £79.01 million remaining unidentified and a risk to plan delivery.

Cancer Services

The committee was scheduled to conduct a deep dive into cancer services in North East London. Femi Odewale, Managing Director, and Angela Wong, Chief Medical Officer, North East London Cancer Alliance, prepared a report for discussion. The report included:

• An introduction to the North East London Cancer Alliance, which works to improve local cancer services and reduce health inequalities.
• Cancer statistics for north east London, including the top cancer types, the number of people diagnosed with cancer, and the number of people living with cancer.
• Performance against national cancer standards, including the 28-day faster diagnosis standard, the 31-day decision to treat-to-treatment standard, and the 62-day referral to treatment standard.
• Cancer screening rates for bowel, cervical, and breast cancer in each borough.
• Information on lung cancer screening, including uptake rates and the number of lung cancers diagnosed.
• Early diagnosis initiatives to raise awareness, increase uptake of screening, and reduce health inequalities, including the You Need to Know campaign, pancreatic cancer surveillance, support from Hackney Wick FC for the Its Not a Game campaign, a pan-London cervical screening campaign with Olympic athletes, and cancer awareness in schools.
• Initiatives to improve diagnosis and treatment, including the use of artificial intelligence in chest X-rays, treatment clinical animations, teledermatology, and histopathology improvements.
• Initiatives to provide personalised cancer care, including stratified follow-up, remote monitoring systems, and prehabilitation services.
• Information on workforce initiatives, including an oncology workforce review and a Pan-London Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist Development Lead (CDL) programme.
• Information on communications and engagement, including community events, a Patient and Carer Community of Practice, support for patients and carers, podcasts, HSJ Awards, and website and social media.
• Priorities for 2025 to 2026, including operational performance against national cancer standards, early diagnosis, uptake of screening programmes, reducing health inequalities, improvements to priority cancer pathways, and optimising the use of artificial intelligence in cancer diagnosis.

Scrutiny Report

The committee was scheduled to review the scrutiny report, which included the forward plan, action tracker, and recommendations tracker. The committee was expected to discuss items for the 2025-26 cycle and review the action tracker and recommendations tracker from the previous meeting.