South West London CCG Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

What we learned from the second wave This second wave was different from the first in that we were able to identify and isolate positive patients and their contacts much more quickly, and our treatments and outcomes for patients were better as we understood more about the disease. Despite being better prepared and more experienced, the second wave was still a challenge, with this second surge in cases adding to existing winter pressures. Our health and care staff worked incredibly hard to support local communities with the pressures of winter, Covid-19 and recovering from delayed care during the first wave of the pandemic. November 2020 saw the national roll-out of lateral flow testing kits for our front-line staff, which helped reduce some of the staffing pressures that our services had been subject to, particularly in our hospitals. Seasonal flu vaccinations Together with our health and care partners, the South West London CCG launched a comprehensive flu programme. With the risk of both flu and Covid-19 circulating at wintertime, it was more important than ever for those most at risk to get vaccinated, and also allow us to quickly move on to rolling out a Covid-19 vaccination programme from December 2020. Building on our engagement with local communities over the summer, we worked hard across health and care with our local communities and voluntary sector to engage our communities and encourage uptake. By December 2020, we had flu-vaccinated over 300,000 people in South West London, including 220,000 people from at risk groups, more than 70,000 school children and over 16,000 health and care staff. This made us the highest performing CCG in London for flu vaccination. Improving discharge from hospitals and working with care homes Our primary care teams have worked with partners to develop the South West London Intermediate Care Pathway, which is helping is us work better than ever with our partners across South West London to support patients who have different levels of care needs and discharge them safely into the community. This is helping us to make sure that acute hospital beds are available for the patients who need them most. Supporting our care homes to be able to Supporting our care homes to be able to receive patients back from hospital when they are well enough is a vital part of making sure our hospitals have capacity to treat new patients Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21 | 33