Sojan Joseph/Kent MPs – ICB Meeting – 13th November

Today (13th November 2024) was the first of a series of regular meetings arranged by the MP for Ashford, Sojan Joseph (Lab), designed to open a dialogue and discussion between the MPs elected to represent Kent and Medway and the Integrated Care Board (ICB) leaders – the main organisation to for local NHS planning and budgeting. The MPs will use these meetings to take forward their constituents’ concerns and grievances with local healthcare directly to the ICB representatives. In attendance from Kent and Medway ICB were Paul Bentley, the ICB’s CEO and Natalie Davies, Chief of Staff for Kent, and Medway ICB.

In a show of strong cross-party unity, there were MPs or representatives in attendance from all three of the major parties representing Kent and Medway in attendance, showing a strong representation of bipartisanship and willingness to work together on a cross-party basis to solve a wide range of issues, such as social care and NHS waiting times.

The ICB is an integral part of Ashford’s local healthcare system as it currently covers three Primary Care Networks in the constituency (Ashford Medical Practice, Ashford Rural, and Mid Kent). In September of this year, these PCNs were funded for and employed 110.5 full time staff members, including: advanced care practitioners, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and nursing associates – given the large scale of the ICB and the number of people employed under its remit, it is very important that there is a clear dialogue between the senior members of the team and the political representatives in Westminster.

At the meeting, the issue of the need to bring in the Secretary of State, Wes Streeting’s plans for reform in the NHS was discussed. It has been accepted by the ICB that we will not be able to tackle the crisis in our NHS – including our social care crisis and overcrowding if the need for reform is not taken onboard. It was also noted that there are currently 640 people who do not need to be occupying beds in Kent and Medway hospitals this week. However, they cannot be discharged for a multitude of reasons, including the fact that if 29 if them were immediately discharged they would become homeless. Therefore, it was acknowledged that to solve our healthcare crisis we must address issues across sectors – including housing.

NHS Kent and Medway has commissioned a wide range of LES’ (Local Enhanced Services) ranging from Phlebotomy to Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM). The intended outcomes of these services are described below: 

• Better care, closer to the patient’s home 

• Improved health and clinical outcomes for patients 

• Improved access • Improved quality indicators 

• Improved patient experience 

• Reduction in health inequalities 

• Reduction in secondary care activity and cost 

• Improved practice resilience, sustainability, and growth

• High quality primary care offer with a remuneration package proportionate to service delivery 

• Improved recruitment and retention in primary care 

• Aligned primary care to support the delivery of national and local priorities including Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care, The NHS Long Term Plan, Fuller Stocktake Report, and the Kent and Medway Primary Care Strategy.

Issues ranging from raising the standard of GP services, to outdated NHS estates across Kent and Medway, the social care crisis, to the lower standards of coastal and rural healthcare, and the move towards a preventative, modern and digitalised NHS were all raised at the meeting by the MPs.

Sojan Joseph quote:
“The ICB were very receptive to our concerns. We have a lot of work to do to improve our local healthcare services. I witnessed some of the issues myself on visits to the William Harvey Hospital – patients being treated in corridors, long waiting times and overcrowding. I also receive a very high number of contacts from constituents who cannot get a GP appointment – something we are working hard to address. These are the consequences of almost a decade and a half of austerity. However, I do not believe that these are issues that we cannot fix together. And, on top of a constructive first meeting with the ICB, we saw a great example of cross-party unity and MPs working together in the best interests of their constituents.”