Northumbria Healthcare focused on future despite continued Covid pressures

Despite ongoing pressures, the trust, which runs hospitals and community services in Northumberland and North Tyneside, continues to perform strongly relative to the rest of the NHS nationally, but knows it can do more to continue to ensure all patients receive the high- quality care they deserve.

At its public board meeting, Birju Bartoli, Northumbria Healthcare’s executive director for performance and improvement, outlined the key themes for the trust’s forward planning.

They include careful monitoring of capacity and ensuring patients can move through the system (flow), increased community focus, including innovations in social care, and further use of technology and data.

Addressing the national context and various new plans as the health and care system moves into the recovery phase from the Covid-19 pandemic, Birju explained that the trust will not see national targets as the end goal, but will strive to go further, faster as part of Northumbria’s ongoing commitment to giving patients the best experience possible.

However, while there is a renewed focus on future ambitions, Covid-19 continues to have a major impact, albeit in a different way to in earlier waves of the pandemic.

Sir James Mackey, the trust’s chief executive, said: “Covid-19 is still with us and while it is now a lower-impact disease because of the vaccinated population, it is still having a large impact on absence and disruption, with cancelled procedures and appointments due to both staff and patient illness.

"This is likely to continue for two to three weeks before we hopefully settle back into a rhythm again.”

The board meeting took place the day after the National Day of Reflection which marked the second anniversary of the start of the first lockdown began and Sir James encouraged everyone to take some time to think about the past two years.

He said: “We’re all worried about the ongoing impacts on all our communities, but I’m particularly concerned about young people’s mental health.

"We want to make sure we continue to work on that going forward.”

Chairman, Professor Alan Richardson, added: “Staff are very tired, but remain very committed and we reiterate our sincere thanks for all their efforts.”