Live Well
We want to ensure the next generation are healthier than the last and have the opportunity to thrive.
In Humber and North Yorkshire, we have prioritised treatment of tobacco dependency. Alongside the accelerated rollout of the NHS Long Term Plan, which saw dedicated ‘Swap and Stop’ tobacco dependency treatment services embedded into our hospital sites, a ground-breaking, regional Centre for Excellence in Tobacco Control has been established, which connects all partners in the field to a shared vision of a smoke free future.
Swap and Stop tobacco dependency treatment services have worked with a total of 4,760 people across our communities when accessing hospital services, providing a critical intervention to address the harm caused by tobacco and offer help, medication, and advice alongside clinical care.
Of this number, the team provided nicotine replacement therapy and behavioural support to 1,503 maternity service users with 217 of those remaining smokefree after 4-weeks.
2,669 in-patients across the Trusts have been supported to stay smokefree in hospital, with 581 maintaining their quit 28 days post discharge.
The Centre for Excellence in Tobacco Control is a ground-breaking regional programme dedicated to reducing the harm from tobacco. Its manifesto is to unite partners across Humber and North Yorkshire to create a future free from tobacco harm by collaborating, coordinating, innovating and amplifying initiatives to end smoking. The Centre has been a vocal advocate of proposals to introduce new tobacco and vaping legislation which would make it illegal for children who turn 15 this year to ever be sold cigarettes.
Primary Care Network (PCN) improvement plans have been developed by all 43 PCNs across Humber and North Yorkshire. As part of these plans we are supporting GP practices to move to cloud-based telephony systems. This will create a better experience for patients, who will no longer hear an engaged tone but will be presented with an options menu, a queueing system, and an opportunity for recorded messages. It will also support practices by providing them with real-time data to inform capacity planning.
The plans have also seen progress made with PCNs improving accessibility for website and online tools, including promotion of the NHS App and 111 online. Other elements include care navigation training, promotion of community pharmacy services, enabling capacity in the wider general practice team and increasing self-referrals where appropriate.
A new campaign has also been launched to highlight the different roles working alongside GPs that all help with health needs – allowing patients to get the right care from the right healthcare professional as quickly as possible.
Latest data shows more than 826,000 appointments were made with GP practices in Humber and North Yorkshire in December 2023. Nearly 400,000 of those were with a practice nurse or a healthcare professional other than a GP.
In our first year as dental commissioners, we have focused on stabilising the system, building relationships, and maximising the use of the NHS dental budget.
A position on the likely value of total under delivery (compared to contracted levels) for the financial year (2023/24) was assumed and re-invested in priority areas upfront.
This funding has been used to secure additional urgent access sessions, providing practices with more funding to make available weekly “sessions” to treat patients with an urgent dental need. This recognises that while access to general dental services remains a challenge, patients are more likely to develop an urgent need.
Our performance against the Faster Diagnosis Standard for Cancer has improved and we are on track to deliver the national standard of 75% by March 2024. Our Cancer Champions Programme has now trained over 5,000 people. Sessions have been delivered to target groups including Eastern European community groups, Muslim faith groups, and Learning Disability groups.
Our NHS Targeted Lung Health Checks have been launched in the East Riding of Yorkshire. These can help to identify lung cancer and other respiratory diseases early, often before symptoms have occurred and when treatment could be simpler and more successful. Those participants identified – around 40,000 in East Riding – as having an elevated risk, are invited for a low-dose CT scan onboard a high-tech mobile unit.
The programme, which was already available in Hull and parts of North East Lincolnshire, was introduced in the Withernsea and surrounding areas in November 2023.
Four out of five people in Humber and North Yorkshire aged 14 and over who are registered with a learning disability have had an annual health check in the last year – exceeding national targets.
Just over 80 per cent of those who are registered with a learning disability in our area completed their annual health check in 2022/23. The figures for the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership are well above the national NHS Long Term Plan ambition for at least 75 per cent of people aged 14 or over having a Learning Disability Health Check.
Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) in Ripon, East Riding, Selby and York are now open.
In Scunthorpe, building work has commenced on a Community Diagnostic Centre which will support 146,000 tests per year.
Work has started on converting five units in Freshney Place Shopping Centre into a bespoke Centre which will offer around 150,000 additional diagnostic appointments a year. Construction will also begin shortly for the CDC in Hull’s Albion Square, on a new £18 million NHS facility which will welcome thousands of patients annually.
GPs can refer patients to a centre so they can access life-saving checks closer to home and be diagnosed for a range of conditions, rather than travelling to hospital.
Expansion of CDCs will enable an increase in diagnostic capacity, will reduce waiting list times and improve access for patients.
Working collaboratively, the four acute NHS trusts within Humber and North Yorkshire made significant progress on addressing long waits in 2023/24, with 99.7% of patients seen within the national requirement of 65 weeks. This means thousands more patients within our region are being seen more quickly. As an example of this collaboration, over 200 patients transferred from one trust to another, expediting their treatment.
A Waiting Well programme has now been developed for those on waiting lists. Bringing together a system approach to support patients through social prescribing, voluntary support, social care, community-based support and self-care.
In addition, a patient engagement portal has also been developed across all four acute trusts to assist in two-way communication between the hospital and the patient. This allows the patient and the hospital to communicate easier and provides quicker access to clinical information.
A number of new urgent and emergency facilities and departments have opened over the last 18 months to improve service delivery and provide modern, well-equipped facilities that are purpose-built to meet the needs of our communities for years to come.
In Northern Lincolnshire, the first patients were seen in two new Emergency Departments, costing a combined £34.2 million and doubling the size of the previous facilities. The doors opened in Grimsby in October 2022, and Scunthorpe in March 2023.
This was then followed in January 2024, when £4.4 million Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) and Integrated Acute Assessment (IAA) units opened at the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby.
York Hospital’s £18 million expanded and redesigned emergency department was officially opened in July 2023. The two-storey expansion, which has taken just 20 months to complete, includes a vital new eight-bedded resuscitation area and twelve new assessment and treatment cubicles.
Anticipated to open in 2024, work is underway to complete a new £47 million pound Urgent and Emergency Care Centre at Scarborough Hospital.
Hull’s Story Street walk-in service has also moved to a new home at Hull Royal Infirmary, paving the way for improved integration of urgent care services in the city. The move aims to ease pressures on the Emergency Department at the hospital by reducing overcrowding, inappropriate attendances
and patient waiting times.
We have implemented a high volume/low complexity surgical hub at Goole hospital to allow patients to complete their surgery without the risks of cancellations associated from acute hospital pressures.
Great teamwork has also been key to reducing the length of stay in hospital for patients at Goole hospital, with a Quality Improvement (QI) project reducing the length of stay for hip and knee patients from 2.74 days to 1.79 days.
We are committed to improving health outcomes for women and girls as part of our Women Living Well Longer Programme. Work has initially focused on the development of a comprehensive Women’s Health Profile, an intelligence dashboard with extensive information about women’s health issues and challenges in Humber and North Yorkshire as well as workshop sessions involving over 60 people across health, care and voluntary organisations working with women and girls. Key themes identified through the workshops were education, support, access and pathways.
Rich conversations have taken place with women and women’s groups in particular communities to better understand some of the specific challenges and issues. Menopause, menstrual bleeding, gynaecology and contraception are emerging areas of most concern overall. A design group and programme team has now been fully established to progress this work at pace. We have developed a definition of serious violence as part of our response to domestic violence and victims of abuse and we are reviewing safeguarding policies to include domestic abuse and sexual safety. We have signed up to the sexual safety charter and work is underway to establish serious violence navigators in emergency departments.
Our trauma informed care programme has been very successful in establishing 4 test and learn sites, which have recently gained national recognition. We have received 487 appropriate referrals, of which 464 young people accessed the service. We have also seen a drop in the re-offending rate among young people since the establishment of this work.
Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) Artist’s impression