More focus needed on frailty, prevention and early years, says health board
Loxley House in Station Street, where Nottingham City Council is based
By Lauren Monaghan, Junior Local Democracy Reporter
More work is needed to prevent people from entering the healthcare system across Nottinghamshire and to stop ‘institutionalising’ frail and ageing patients.
That’s according to a Notts health board, which said early years prevention, tackling ‘frailty’ in society and ensuring people are signposted to the correct support are among a long-term public health strategy for the city and county.
Representatives from the Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) met today (October 28) to discuss its plans to improve health outcomes.
The ICP is a committee involving the NHS Integrated Care Board and local authorities like the city and county councils.
These are the authorities responsible for delivering – and monitoring – healthcare provision in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
The Nottinghamshire ICS plan contains 14 priorities, with the committee primarily discussing the frailty of society, early years support, and long-term health condition prevention in the meeting.
They also discussed the ‘making every contact count’ (MECC) priority, which refers to the correct signposting to other services when someone needs support.
That includes smoking cessation, physical activity and mental health support’.
Committee members discussed improving clarity some of their health priorities – and better communication with the public about prevention.
They also said one of the best ways to improve health outcomes is to address the ‘frailty’ of society.
That means addressing support for people in an ageing society who are more at risk of long-term health conditions and hospital admission.
In the meeting, Anthony May, chief executive of Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, said: “The biggest thing we could do is to improve our joint work on frailty.
“That’s what drives quite a lot of the congestion in hospitals – and cost.”
Mr May said the organisation could focus on supporting people who are frail with things like digital technology.
The meeting heard these are the people most likely to not understand the concept of services like ‘hospital at home’ and virtual wards.
Amanda Sullivan, Chief Executive of NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB, added: “At the moment we are medicalising it massively, we’re institutionalising people.
“We’re doing some personalisation but not as much as we could – more and more people are becoming frail very rapidly.”
Andrew Redfern, chief executive of Framework Housing Association, also raised questions about prevention.
He said: “We treat, someone else prevents – it’s like prevention is something that happens somewhere else. I wonder if that’s the right way to think about it?
“As a user of the NHS, one thing that always strikes me, [the NHS] seems very reluctant to treat in a way that prevents.
“This distinction between treatment and prevention seems quite stark- actually prevention is a form of treatment.”
Kathy McLean, chair of the committee and the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB, said the early years prevention should and will be more heavily focused on moving forward.
She added: “Prevention includes education, housing, jobs, skills. Those are the things, the life opportunities and the conditions they live in.
“Once we’ve landed on where we are, we need to communicate so when that question arises of ‘what are you focusing on in Nottinghamshire?’, we’ve all not just read something, but we’ve embodied it.”
The meeting did not approve any decisions on the strategies and instead, members were asked to note some progress and positives on prevention since the initiatives started.
That includes supporting nearly 2,000 four-week smoking quit programmes and helping 1,025 to achieve a three or five per cent weight loss.
It also supported slightly more than 3,000 people to increase their physical activity and about 2,000 adults to reduce their alcohol intake.
Of people who accessed this service during that time, 2,358 said that their mental wellbeing had improved, papers add.
The ICP will next meet in March 2025, where progress from the strategy is likely to be reviewed again.
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