Primary care latest updates

A collection of new resources – including an easy-to-access video – is now available to help explain the NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board Five-Year Joint Forward Plan.

The Joint Forward Plan was published earlier this year. It sets out how we plan to work together as an integrated care system over the next five years, in partnership with our local communities, to support the people of Northamptonshire to live healthier lives and enjoy equal access to better healthcare.

The new supporting resources are designed to accompany the Five-Year Joint Forward Plan and summarise its key elements in a way that is easy to understand. They include:

Explainer video

Key figures from our integrated care system explain what the Plan is about, what it sets out to achieve and what it means for you.

Leaflet

A 12-page summary leaflet to read online or to print. Download the leaflet.

Presentation pack

A slide deck for colleagues to download to help them tell the Five-Year Joint Forward Plan story in presentations. Download the presentation pack.

Our Five-Year Joint Forward Plan is guided by the wider 10-year ‘Live Your Best Life’ Strategy for Northamptonshire, and is also aligned with the emerging health and wellbeing strategies for North and West Northamptonshire.

Its publication is just the start of a continuing process, throughout which we will be involving and engaging with local communities to ensure that people’s voices and experiences are guiding the development and delivery of our plans.

Find our Five-Year Joint Forward Plan and all the accompanying resources online at www.icnorthamptonshire.org.uk/icb-plan

Read New resources provide insight into ICB Five-Year Joint Forward Plan…

In July 2023, NHS England published its plan for winter earlier than ever before, setting out actions systems and providers should take to build resilience ahead of what is likely to be another challenging winter.

These preparations build on the measures set out in the NHS Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan. More than £1bn revenue and £250 million of capital funding has been invested since the recovery plan was published to boost capacity and speed up discharge.

Chris Pallot, Director of Operations and Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board said: “Although the NHS experiences year-round pressures, the winter months are traditionally its busiest and most challenged time.

“Locally we are working with partners to look at how we can increase bed capacity in our hospitals as we move through the winter months whether this is boosting specialist services to patients with an increased risk of requiring hospital treatment, including those who are frail or have long-term conditions, to minimise hospitalisations, providing intermediate care for patients who are ready to leave hospital but need additional support in their recovery before they return home and expanding our virtual wards to ensure more people can be cared for at home.”

Ten high impact priority interventions have been identified nationally, which support a safe and effective service for patients and systems have been asked to deliver these. These include:

• Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) – strengthening SDEC services to provide care for a minimum of 12 hours per day, 7 days a week
• Frailty – boosting services to detect more cases that could benefit from specific frailty advice and ensuring referrals to avoid admission
• Improving acute inpatient flow and length of stay – making sure patients stay in hospital for the shortest time medically necessary
• Improving community bed productivity and flow – ensuring patients receive community care as long as they need and receive support to continue their recovery when they leave hospital
• Care Transfer Hubs – ensuring all care transfer hubs are operating effectively as they connect with community partners to speed up discharge of patients
• Intermediate care demand and capacity – planning and commissioning the required amount and type of intermediate care needed to ensure timely discharge from acute settings
• Virtual wards – ensuring 10,000 virtual beds are in operation nationally by September 2023 to provide care for more people in their homes
• Urgent Community Response – appropriately assessing all patients who would benefit from urgent community care to avoid unnecessary transfer to hospital
• Single point of access – creating a consistent and coordinated system for health and care professionals to access when referring patients for UEC care
• Acute Respiratory Infection Hubs – providing same day urgent assessment for people experiencing respiratory conditions such as covid, flu, and RSV

In addition, the NHS is rolling out the COVID-19 and flu vaccination programme, which provides vital protection to eligible individuals over winter, preventing people from developing serious illnesses, and helping to minimise hospitalisations during busy winter months.

Strengthening mental health support is also a key element of our winter plans, and locally we are looking to improve ambulance responses to mental health calls and avoid long lengths of stay in mental health inpatient settings.

The NHS is also introducing a number of new services this autumn and winter to improve capacity in General Practice and make it more convenient for patients with conditions like conjunctivitis and UTIs to receive treatment quickly and easily without the need for an appointment at participating pharmacies.

Read How your NHS is preparing for winter…

Integrated Care Northamptonshire has partnered up with Northamptonshire Carers to celebrate Carer Rights Day this year. We are running a fantastic virtual workshop session entitled ‘Caring for Your Future’ as part of our Leadership Matters Conversation series.

If you help support or care for a friend or family member, come along and learn about what rights you are entitled to.

The Caring for Your Future event will start at 1pm on Thursday 23 November and is broken down into five short sessions.

The first session will be hosted by Northamptonshire Carers and its aim is to highlight the support available for working carers. This session will cover:

• What help is available to working carers
• Information on carers assessments
• Employers for Carers Fund
• The mental health impact of being a carer
• Young carers

The second session will look at the power of attorney and making a will, while the third session will hear from a working carer who joins us to share her experiences.

In the fourth session we will offer three ‘listening booths’ for people to choose from and learn more about a particular subject during small breakout sessions. The three booths will cover:

• Carers passports
• Caring and the cost-of-living crisis
• How employers can support working carers

The final session will give you the chance to provide feedback on the session, share what you have learned and ask any questions.

Caring for a loved one is a full-time job, and often one people do on top of their own full-time job. The emotional toll it can have on you is massive and sometimes more impactful than the physical demands of being a career. All of us at ICN and Northamptonshire Carers want to applaud the amazing work, time and energy carers put into their roles. We want to help you help yourself and understand exactly what support is available to these, often, unsung heroes.

Register online for Caring for Your Future

Read Caring for Your Future this Carers' Rights Day…

Integrated Care Northamptonshire has published the 2023/24 refresh of the county's Children and Young People’s Mental Health Local Transformation Plan.

This plan captures the wide-ranging and innovative ways in which our integrated care system has continued to adapt to the complexities of increasing demand and acuity of presenting needs of our children and young people.

It also details our progress against national targets and objectives articulated in last year’s plan, within a challenging financial environment. The plan shares our agreed system priorities for 2024/25 and outlines the vision for continued excellence and improvement.

The outstanding commitment to collaborative and creative ways of working has been highlighted this year by the inclusion of a six-part mini-video series, designed by our children and young people. It is hoped this will anchor the foundations of authentic co-production with our young people and provide them with the voice they deserve. The mini-video series, together with the easy read version of our plan, will serve us well in ensuring that their experiences will never be lost, that their voices matter and that they, with us, continue to develop and shape our services to meet their needs.

The authors of the plan would like to thank all system partners, both NHS and voluntary sector, Northamptonshire Children’s Trust, public health, education, youth justice and police teams and both our local authorities for their contributions to the document.

Particular thanks go to NHFT’s Children and Young People Participation Team and the young people who gave their time and energy to this plan and demonstrated their dedication and passion in working in partnership to ensure everyone is supported to achieve their very best outcomes in life.

Download the Northamptonshire Children and Young People's Mental Health Transformation Plan 2023/24

Download the easy read version

Watch the explainer videos playlist on YouTube

 

Read Updated Children and Young People's mental health transformation plan published…

Applications are open for the Certificate training course 'Meeting the Medical Needs of Adults with a Learning Disability'.

The course lasts for 15 months and results in a University Certificate granted by Edge Hill University. The course is run by the Royal College of Physicians and Edge Hill.

The aim of the course is to improve the medical care of the physical health of people with a learning disability. The course is aimed at hospital consultant physicians, senior medical trainees, GPs, particularly those with a learning disability leadership role, senior trainees in learning disability psychiatry and allied health professionals who have a role in the clinical care of medical problems for this patient group.

Funding is available for places starting in February 2024 for those working in England.

For further information and to apply click the link here.

Read Applications open for Certificate training course 'Meeting the Medical Needs of Adults with a Learning Disability'…