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University Hospitals of Leicester Trust has been on quite a journey. Just 18 months ago the trust was one of the worst-performing nationally for its huge elective waiting list backlog and sat within NHS England’s highest oversight group for performance.
However, UHL has now left NHSE’s “tiering” system altogether and claims to be unmatched in terms of the reduction in the number of patients waiting for planned care at the trust over the last 12 months.
Its chief operating officer Jon Melbourne is clear that although the trust is proud of its progress there is still more to do as patients are waiting too long for care in Leicestershire, which the trust “does not accept”.
He also discussed the more positive side of the tiering system, saying the trust made the decision to “lean into it” and “get the support of partners across the system”, describing how gains were made through a combination of learning from others, working with the national Getting It Right First Time team, the local cancer alliance and improving its appointment attendance rates to name a few.
Although the trust has made good progress in terms of emergency care, elective and cancer performance, the challenge will be to maintain this as the more challenging autumn and winter months roll in and also retain a grip on its finances.
Directors cut
An integrated care board faces a row with a large county council over plans to axe its “place” directors and centralise their teams, HSJ has learned.
Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB has proposed cutting the lead director posts for each of its three “places” and centralise some place-based teams, including those for urgent and emergency care.
The move came as part of the ICB’s latest restructure proposals, aimed at reducing running costs by 30 per cent, matching the national requirement for all ICBs.
One source close to the situation said there was “united opposition” to the plan across Oxfordshire Council and GPs in the county.
Another source involved locally said councils were “kicking off” over the proposals, and HSJ understands Oxfordshire County Council is planning to call an extraordinary health overview and scrutiny committee meeting to discuss it.
ICB interim CEO Nick Broughton told HSJ that the ICB remains “absoutely committed to supporting the development and strengthening of place partnerships”, with the proposed operating model dedicating resource to each of the three places.
These include, he said, “a very senior manager role and senior lead dedicated to each place”, but added: “In common with other ICBs, we need to balance place resource with the need to effectively deliver our core, system level responsibilities.”
Also on hsj.co.uk
In The Integrator this week, Dave West looks at how the government’s policies for general practice are likely to unfold, and in Comment, Adebusuyi Adeyemi suggests that a new regulatory regime is required to limit healthcare systems from reproducing unjustified variation in outcomes for different ethnicities.
