The intensive support team brought in to help the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department in Brighton is reviewing care provided in the community.
One of the aims is to identify ways to ensure fewer patients turn up at A&E at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton unless they really need to be there.
This will involve looking at the way general practitioners (GPs) work across Brighton and Hove including out-of-hours care.
It will also involve looking at whether Brighton and Hove City Council is doing enough to find places for hospital patients who no longer need medical support but do need social care.
The Emergency Care Intensive Support Team (ECIST) was called in by Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust in January.
The trust runs the Royal Sussex and had become concerned by the rising number of patients coming to A&E and the time that it was taking to see them.
The ECIST review of community care is mentioned in a report to the trust board by chief executive Matthew Kershaw.
Mr Kershaw is due to present the report tomorrow morning (Monday 24 June).
His report says: “Further work has been undertaken on the trust-wide action plan to improve our unscheduled care system.
“We continue to make positive progress although there have and will continue to be some challenging days demonstrating that there is still more work to do.
“ECIST are now reviewing community provision so that we are fully prepared for the forthcoming winter period.”
He also gives the board an update on progress towards persuading the Treasury to give final approval for the £420 million overhaul of the Royal Sussex.
The scheme – known as the 3Ts (teaching, trauma and tertiary care) project – received planning permission more than a year ago.
Mr Kershaw’s report says: “We have now received initial headline feedback from the Trust Development Authority (TDA) on the 3Ts submission which will ultimately be presented to Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) for sign off ahead of the production of the full business case.
“The feedback was positive in terms of the very significant amount of work undertaken and we are now clarifying a number of final points ahead of the submission to HMT.
“This will be completed over the next few weeks and we will continue to update the board on progress with the final elements of work, feedback from the TDA and the response from HMT.”
Mr Kershaw also touches on an outsourcing contract with Sodexho which has prompted union officials and board members to raise concerns.
His report says: “As part of our management of the Sodexho contract, I met with the managing director (health) to discuss the progress with the contract over the initial four months.
“This was a useful session that allowed us to raise a number of key issues and reaffirm both parties’ commitment to continue to work together to ensure high-quality outcomes on the range of services provided under the contract.”
Mr Kershaw’s report also includes a section on relations with local authorities which says: “We continue to attend health overview and scrutiny committees in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove and in the last month were also invited to address the Brighton and Hove Health and Wellbeing Board.
“These important forums allow our local authority colleagues to engage in key issues for the trust and local population and in the last month this has focused on unscheduled care and also the 3Ts development.
“I have also attended my first Brighton City Management Board meeting which is chaired by the CEO of Brighton and Hove council and brings together key public sector leaders from across the city to share our key priorities and identify where joint work will support all our objectives.”
