Hello my name is Rob

We are seeing a digital revolution in health and care that risks seeing the system catch up with the rest of our lives. For many years, we have lagged behind the rest of society in the way that we do things. In a world where we self-manage our finances, travel, university careers and shopping, the NHS and care system has stuck doggedly with letters and face to face meetings where people using services and their carers are not in control. This is changing before our eyes as general practices, mental health services, some hospital services and care providers move to 'digital by default' in reality not rhetoric. Of course, not everything can be done remotely and my admiration and support goes to social care staff and community teams across the patch delivering care to vulnerable people and those on our mental, physical and learning disability wards providing hands on care.

This mass move to digital offers is essential as it will save lives. Adult Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme staff are counselling; GPs providing routine care, new video consultations are replacing outpatient appointments and therapy sessions, and our vital admin staff are being supported to work at home too. I know our kit and infrastructure does not always support this everywhere but the scale and pace of change is visible in every organisation and every place.

Staying at home can be the heroic thing to do and we are ensuring as many people as possible are able to do so. Being ‘online’ for many of us has a new meaning as we adapt to new ways of working.

I have ‘stayed home’ on several days and continued in both my CEO roles holding national, regional and local meetings via skype, WhatsApp, Microsoft Team etc. The opportunities to ‘stay in touch’ have been endless. Although this doesn’t replace a sense of physical presence, it does offer new and disciplined ways of working and the chance for social connectivity, which is essential to us all.

As the outbreak intensifies over the coming days and weeks, the evidence from other countries and the advice from the Chief Medical Officer is that at the peak of the outbreak our health and care organisations will come under intense pressure. Our colleagues working across health and social care will face intense pressure as we continue to fight this new virus and it’s important to work together to limit the speed of spread. Never has it been more important to pull together.

As a Partnership of health and social care providers it is our responsibility to plan, prevent, protect and help people who may contract the virus – whilst also remembering at all times that the health of all colleagues is critical and that acts of community kindness and patience matters most in challenging times. Supporting each other really matters.

I’ve been heartened to hear many positive stories this week, in terms of how people are volunteering in communities to help one another and how simple acts of kindness, many online, are really making a positive difference to those who need extra support now more than ever.

Understandably the way in which the Partnership operates over the coming weeks and months will mean we will need to change and adapt to this new reality. Four years ago we came together as health and care leaders – as a partnership committed to collaborating at a West Yorkshire and Harrogate level to improve people’s health and wellbeing. This way of working has never been more important as we face one of the most challenging times of our lives and careers. Our task can be summarised as:

Exponentially increasing critical care capacity to meet the demands of Covid-19
Caring for our share of the 30,000 people discharged from general and acute beds nationally at short notice
Building coordinated support for our share of the 1.4 million people being shielded at home for 12 weeks
Delivering business continuity and safe services in the face of reduced staffing from sickness, self, isolation and shielding.

 

To co-ordinate our COVID-19 efforts we have taken three rapid steps.

Firstly, we have convened weekly meetings of a small group of sector leads within the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (WY&H HCP).  There are well established arrangements at system level, through the West Yorkshire Resilience Forum, and at local level, with Councils, NHS organisations and other partners working together in each place to co-ordinate our response on COVID-19. The sector lead meeting does not duplicate existing arrangements or create additional oversight or reporting mechanisms. We are however clear that the relationships, infrastructure and ways of working we have established through the Partnership will add value in supporting the response. We also have access to staff with the capacity and skills to work in different ways as required by the system throughout the pandemic.

Second, we have set up a West Yorkshire and Harrogate Strategic Health Coordination Group. This brings together all of our emergency planners and teams to feed into the Resilience Forum.

Finally, we have re-profiled all of our programme work to focus on things that will deliver the biggest difference in meeting the Covid-19 challenges. Some has paused like the local maternity system, some has been refocused entirely like the support for isolated carers and some has been accelerated, such as work on support for West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts (hospitals working together) on critical care and capacity. More details will be available shortly.

Now, more than ever, we must lean on the strength of our partnerships to ensure we continue to coordinate a joined-up response where scale matters, good practice can be shared and wicked issues addressed.

Please stay safe. Stay at home if you can. We are genuinely transforming care and securing services to keep people safe in these intense times. And to all our key workers, across all sectors, thank you for being the change we need to see. Your courage and professionalism is visible for all to see.

Rob