As we approach the end of the calendar year, and many people will now be thinking about Christmas and what 2023 will bring, we want to share a message with our colleagues, partners and wider stakeholders.
This year has been a significant one for Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership with the establishment of our Integrated Care Board in July, as changes were made to health services across England with the Health and Care Act 2022.
Alongside of this, this has been a year of achievement and success and we want to thank all of our colleagues and partners for their commitment, hard work and dedication throughout.
It is difficult to do justice to all that has been achieved across the Partnership and below is just a small selection of highlights:
- Outpatient Transformation Programme creates ways of supporting patients with accessing appointments
- New ‘Quit Together’ tobacco dependence treatment services across Humber and North Yorkshire ICB
- Celebrating Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership’s Covid Medicine Delivery Units in delivering medicines to vulnerable patients
- Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership becomes the first ICS to receive Independent Menopause Friendly Accreditation
- Cancer Alliance teams up with partners to launch breast pain clinics
- ‘DadPad’ app introduced to support new and dads-to-be
- ORCHA App Store launched to help support with choosing the right self-care apps
Cost of living support
We know this time of year can be hard for some, and this is clearly no less this year with the added impact many people in our communities are feeling due to the cost-of-living situation.
In Humber and North Yorkshire this adds to some of the challenges we face in relation to poverty, with pockets of deprivation in some of our towns, rural areas and coastal populations.
Whilst we may not be able to solve the cost-of-living crisis, working with partners we can help to support our local communities and direct to where assistance may be available.
Nationally, the Government has set out information at www.gov.uk/cost-of-living where people can find support that is available, including income and disability benefits, bills and allowances, childcare, housing and travel.
Locally, our six Places are working through their Health and Wellbeing Boards to better understand the issues and support required for their populations. There is information provided by our six Local Authorities on available support too and this is found on the following links:
Stay well and choose well
This time of year also brings additional challenges for health and care providers, as the winter months and cold weather typically lead to a higher demand for services. This why we are calling on people to stay well by following self-care advice and taking pre-emptive health measures.
There are many simple ways to stay well this winter, such as:
- Visit their pharmacist or access NHS 111 at the first signs of illness
- Pick up prescriptions in advance of Christmas holidays
- Prepare for common minor illness/ self-care
- Check in on elderly neighbours and relatives
When people do need to access health services, it is important that they are treated appropriately and in a timely manner. The Choose Well image shown below aims to help patients and service users to access the right service, at the right time.
Looking to 2023
This summer saw Integrated Care Systems put on a statutory footing with the establishment of Integrated Care Boards, and this now enables us to work closer together to better join up health and care services, improve population health, reduce health inequalities, enhance productivity and value for money, and help to support broader social and economic development.
As we move into 2023, we will continue to evolve and work closer together to achieve our collective mission to improve the lives of the people who live and work in Humber and North Yorkshire.
This will be done through an ICS operating model which includes our Integrated Care Board, Integrated Care Partnership, six places and five sector collaboratives.
A summary of the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership working arrangements can be found here, with further details regarding our operating model available here.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
We hope you will all be able to gather together with family, friends and loved ones to celebrate Christmas and have the opportunity to rest and reflect on quite the extraordinary year that we’ve all had.
Earlier this month we held a Christmas card competition where we asked the children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and other children who are special to our colleagues to design a Humber and North Yorkshire Christmas card. The chosen design was from Lola, aged 11, and can be seen below.
Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous new year.
Stephen Eames CBE, Chief Executive
Sue Symington, Chair
