The Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee of Leicestershire County Council met on Wednesday, 4 March 2026, to discuss a range of critical health performance issues. Key topics included an update on adult community mental health services, performance in elective care, diagnostics and cancer services, and a broader health performance update for Leicestershire and Rutland. The committee noted concerns regarding waiting times, service capacity, and the effectiveness of various health initiatives across the county.

CQC Inspection Update: LPT Adults Community Mental Health Services

The committee received an update on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust's (LPT) adult community mental health services. The service's overall rating has improved to 'Requires Improvement', with 'Good' ratings in the Safe, Effective, and Caring domains. Inspectors noted staff treated patients with kindness and empathy, and that the service worked effectively with partners to meet patient needs. Areas for improvement identified by the CQC included lengthy outpatient waiting times, unfilled vacancies leading to reliance on temporary staff, and care plans not always being sufficiently detailed. A Warning Notice was issued regarding outpatient waiting times, and the Trust is awaiting the outcome of a follow-up inspection in January 2026. The Trust has implemented a transformation plan to address these issues, leading to reduced waiting times and strengthened caseload management.

Elective Care, Diagnostics and Cancer Performance

An update was provided on elective care, diagnostics, and cancer operations at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL). Elective care recovery has shown significant improvement, with a reduction in patients waiting over 65 weeks. However, the Trust is still aiming to reduce the number of patients waiting over 52 weeks to below 1% of the total waiting list. Referral to Treatment (RTT) performance for elective care was just below 52% at the end of January, with a target to reach 57% by the end of March. Actions to improve elective recovery include additional clinics, utilising the East Midlands Planned Care Centre and Hinckley Community Diagnostic Centre, and exploring AI solutions.

In diagnostics, there were 5,008 patients waiting more than six weeks for a test at the end of January 2026, with 1,301 waiting over 13 weeks. The forecast for the year-end is an improvement to 85% performance. Key actions include increasing CT and MRI capacity, expanding Non-Obstetric Ultrasound (NOUS) capacity, and the opening of the Hinckley Community Diagnostics Centre and a new Endoscopy Unit at the Leicester General Hospital. A second DEXA scanner is also being installed.

For cancer services, UHL is the largest provider in the East Midlands. The Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), requiring a diagnosis or ruling out of cancer within 28 days of an urgent referral, was at 72% in December, with Breast services being a key area of variance. The 62-day Referral to Treatment standard for cancer was at 56% in December, showing a slight improvement. Actions to improve cancer performance include additional evening and weekend capacity, utilising insourced and outsourced solutions, and the installation of a fifth radiotherapy linear accelerator.

Health Performance Update

A comprehensive update was provided on public health and health system performance across Leicestershire and Rutland. The report highlighted upcoming changes to the NHS Performance Assessment Framework for 2025/26, which will assess performance across four domains: integrated care systems, acute care, mental health, and community and ambulance providers. National and local priorities for 2025/26 include improving referral to treatment times, cancer waiting times, Accident and Emergency waiting times, and access to general practice and dental care.

Key performance alerts included:

• Acute and Community Hospital bed occupancy remaining maximised at above 90%.
• Referral To Treatment (RTT) waits for 65+ and 52+ weeks remaining above plan, with Trauma and Orthopaedics, Gynaecology, and Ear, Nose and Throat being particularly pressured.
• Cancer 62-day performance being behind plan, with a risk to achieving the target of 63.2%.
• Ongoing discharge delays in in-patient mental health provision due to social care capacity and other factors.
• The number of Learning Disability Adults and Autistic Adults inpatients remaining above plan.

The report also detailed performance against public health outcomes, with 13 indicators rated 'green' (performing better than the England average), 17 'amber', and 3 'red'. Areas of concern included declining performance in cervical cancer screening and increasing new STI diagnoses. The Better Care Fund performance showed mixed results, with some metrics performing better than the national average, while others were off target.

The committee resolved to note the update on Primary Care services in Leicestershire with concern and requested a further update from the Integrated Care Board (ICB) regarding plans for Latham House Medical Practice and primary care services in the Melton area. They also noted the report on pandemic preparedness and the update on elective care, diagnostics, and cancer performance.