South West London CCG Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Service change in South West London was made following the receipt of national guidance around processes during a Level 4 National Incident and across the country in line with Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) incident coordination functions. In addition, there were changes agreed at the London Clinical Advisory Group before being endorsed and implemented locally. Decisions on these changes were made through the South West London Clinical Cell, made-up of our most senior clinicians from each of our NHS organisations in South West London. They reviewed service changes to ensure that the impact on patient care was comprehensively considered. The Clinical Cell also worked with clinicians to ensure that the changes made were reviewed and considered in our recovery plan discussions. London wide changes were made through a clinical risk- based review by the London Clinical Advisory Group before being endorsed and implemented. For further details on the service changes please see our July 2020 letter, which was sent to key stakeholders, including MPs, local borough Overview and Scrutiny Committees and the South West London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee: https://swlondonccg.nhs.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2020/07/SWL-COVID-19-Service- Change-Letter-17072020.pdf Emergency and cancer patients Our Acute Cell worked hard to make sure that we could provide the right number of intensive care, acute and general care inpatient services across South West London. As well as coordinating all hospital-based care for people in South West London, we worked with our partners in the independent healthcare sector to make best use of capacity in independent hospitals. Furthermore, we continued to make sure that urgent cancer patients were prioritised by our hospitals during this time, and the Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Hub led and supported this pan South West London work. Primary care Since the start of the pandemic, our 180 GP practices have been at the front line looking after suspected and confirmed Covid-19 patients as well non-Covid-19 patients. GPs and practice staff separated these two groups of patients either within each practice, or by working together across groups of practices to do so. Practices adapted to deliver most care through remote consultations either by telephone or video consultations, continuing face-to-face consultations where needed and are doing more home visits than ever before, working hard to avoid all unnecessary hospital admissions or journeys to A&E. Keeping high-risk patients out of hospital South West London CCG led work to increase care and support for more patients with higher health needs in community settings. This work not only aimed to help people avoid being admitted to hospital but also to help patients leave hospital faster. Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21 | 27