Reflections on our year: NHS Kent and Medway
NHS Kent and Medway is the NHS organisation that plans and buys healthcare services to meet the needs of 1.9million people living in Kent and Medway.
Our vision is that we are a leader in health, working with our partners, to make Kent and Medway a great place to live and where people lead longer, healthier and happier lives.
We help make sure all health and care services work together so the people of Kent and Medway get the right care when they need it. Our annual budget for 2024/25 is £4.2billion. This is a look back at 2023/24 and how we served our communities.
Our highlights
We celebrated…
- the opening of Edenbridge Memorial Health Centre – a £14million building, which is now home to a GP surgery, children’s services, diagnostic services, a wellbeing centre and a wide range of outpatient clinics
- the opening of the £12.6million Ruby Ward at Maidstone Hospital – a standalone 16-bed unit for older people with mental health conditions, which replaced an out-of-date dormitory-style ward
- one year on the road for our health and wellbeing bus, which provided more than 7,500 Covid-19 vaccines, 7,400 health checks and saw more than 100,000 people in more than 50 different places.
We launched…
- 11 mental health support teams in schools and colleges, providing advice to school and college staff and liaising with external specialist services to help children and young people get the right support and stay in education
- virtual tours of neonatal units, giving new parents a tour of neonatal special care baby units. Since launching, the videos, co-produced with families on the neonatal journey, have been viewed more than 1,000 times
- the care home programme designed to reduce calls to 999 from care homes – patients are now reviewed, discussed and proactively visited
- two safe havens on hospital sites and increased access to community crisis alternative services in five areas, providing a more appropriate environment for people in mental health crisis who do not need medical intervention
- a referral service in GP practices and hospitals that aims to reduce waiting lists, it’s called the Elective Referral Optimisation Service
- the Health and Care Academy website, which showcases details about the 350 different careers available in health and care.
We engaged with…
- people about our primary care strategy, with contributions from stakeholders, voluntary, community and social enterprise groups, councillors and the public
- young people about mental health and wellbeing as part of the children and young people’s action plan
- women, their allies and health professionals and voluntary sector organisations about women’s health and wellbeing services, with more than 1,000 responses to a survey and a workshop
- more than 3,000 people about mental health urgent and emergency care and section 136 of the Mental Health Act
- more than 200 young people about a children and young people’s strategy.
You can read more about how we engaged on our annual accounts page.
We offered…
- 11 million GP appointments – 500,000 more than the previous year
- an extra 8,000 appointments per month at same-day access hubs, which provide additional GP appointment capacity
- healthcare at home, thanks to 450 virtual beds – patients who would otherwise be in a hospital bed can now be treated in their own home
- more support for vulnerable people, thanks to our 52 dementia co-ordinators, supported by nine additional GPs with specialist dementia training. The co-ordinators work with patients and their carers on personalised care plans, empowering and supporting people with dementia.
We achieved…
- the national cancer waiting time standards for two-week waits from GP referral and 31-day waits for first treatment
- above the national average for the cancer 62-day referral to treatment standard
- a continued reduction in the backlog of planned operations
- above the national benchmark for the number of people being seen within four hours in an emergency department
- above the national benchmark for our Talking Therapies service for people being seen within six weeks.
Our challenges
We work within the NHS oversight framework, which has five main themes, and is NHS England’s approach to provide focussed support to integrated card boards and NHS organisations that provide health services.
The five themes are:
- quality of care, access and outcomes
- preventing ill-health and reducing inequalities
- people
- finance and use of resources
- leadership and capability.
Kent and Medway is in segment three of four in the framework, with one representing lightest touch improvement support required and four being nationally mandated support.
While we achieved a great deal and had many things to celebrate, there were challenges in 2023/24 and some of these are explained here:
- In 2023/24 the financial position across the integrated care system was significantly challenged, requiring continued regulatory input for some NHS organisations.
- There were an increasing number of patients in acute and community hospital beds who no longer needed to be there.
- In our workforce, there were vacancies in key professional areas.
- More people waited for treatment once they had been referred, particularly people waiting more than 52 weeks and 65 weeks, with a small number waiting 104 weeks.
NHS Kent and Medway achieved some of the NHS constitutional standards – key standards that NHS organisations are expected to achieve for patients - but not all.
There were performance challenges across urgent and emergency care. This included the number of people being seen in the emergency department within the 12-hour standard and ambulance handovers within 30 and 60 minutes.
While we met the national benchmark 62-day wait cancer screening and 62- day cancer waits, we did not meet the constitutional standard.
You can read more about the challenges we faced on our annual accounts page.
Working together to improve health and care
We are a lead partner in Kent and Medway’s Integrated Care Partnership, together with
Kent County Council and Medway Council.
Following an interim strategy in 2022, designed to support organisations in Kent and Medway to work together to make health and wellbeing for our population better than any partner can do alone, the strategy was refreshed in 2023/24.
This was after extensive engagement with the public and our partners.
Read the integrated care strategy
Kent and Medway symposium
To support our vision of being a leader in health, we were involved in a number of events and activities in 2023/24.
These included:
Kent and Medway symposium Partners from our integrated care system, including the NHS, councils, Kent Police, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE), came together to hear from and challenge each other on how we could work collaboratively towards better outcomes for all.
For example, delegates heard how through organisations working together, Kent and Medway had seen the number of people experiencing a mental health crisis taken to a Section 136 suite reduced by 60 per cent, with a 10.5 per cent increase in people going through hypertension tests (blood pressure checks).
Participants also discussed how they could play their part in:
- developing a healthier economy and population
- how to grow the next generation of health and social care professionals
- giving children and young people the best start in life
- working alongside the VCSE as part of an effective integrated care system
- health and housing.
Voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE)
We sought to strengthen our relationship and understanding of the VCSE sector. In December 2023, a workshop was held with board members and voluntary sector representatives.
Attendees discussed how we and the sector could work better together, building on our strengths, and how we could remove any barriers to greater engagement.
A representative from NHS Kent and Medway attends bi-monthly meetings with key leaders in the sector to progress these ideas.
Crowdfund Kent
In Spring 2023, we joined Kent County Council in committing £200,000 to Crowdfund Kent to reflect shared commitments in Kent and Medway’s Integrated Care Strategy.
Crowdfund Kent gives small organisations and established groups the opportunity to
carry out projects and ideas to improve the local area.
There is a particular emphasis on supporting community-based initiatives that address inequality, improve health and wellbeing, and combat social isolation, particularly in deprived coastal and rural communities.
Kent and Medway ICB total spend 2023/24
- £2,228m - Acute services including ambulance
- £498m - Delegated primary care
- £460m - Community services
- £407m - Primary healthcare
- £341m - Mental health
- £199m - Continuing healthcare
- £38m - Corporate
- £21m - Other commissioned services
- £15m - Other programme services
- £8m - Reserves and contingencies