This is being held on Tuesday 16 July (10am -1pm) in the Council Chamber, Cherwell Council, Bodicote House, Banbury, OX15 4AA. 

You can join the meeting in person or through an online stream. Details about the agenda, papers and the online streaming link will be made available closer to the meeting on the BOB ICB website - you can also submit a question relating to agenda items in advance of the meeting.

The junior doctors' strike from 27 June to 2 July 2024 affected all our local trusts across the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West area.

The ICB worked closely with partners across the NHS and care sector during the strike to ensure services remained safe.

We prioritised resources to protect emergency treatment, critical care, neonatal care, maternity, and trauma, and ensured priority for patients who had waited the longest for elective care and cancer surgery.

Unfortunately, some appointments and procedures have been rescheduled and patients have been informed. Local NHS trusts are working to see patients and service users as quickly as possible.

Over 500 health and care professionals across the south-east now have the skills and confidence in talking to people about vaccinations. 

A survey of the NHS workforce revealed staff avoided having conversations with patients who had not had vaccinations, as they felt unsure of the facts and thought the topic was an emotive subject.

The free Let’s Talk About Vaccines training sessions were launched by BOB ICB in September last year, targeting health, social care, and voluntary sector staff. The sessions offer approaches and techniques to help people make informed choices about all vaccinations, including childhood immunisations, flu and Covid.

Feedback from learners has been very positive and their confidence has increased. Comments include:

• “It has improved my ability to discuss vaccinations and keep an open mind.”
• “The training made me more aware of the importance of effective communication …. I am now more mindful of how I interact with patients and the more positive the interaction, the better the outcome.”

For more details and to join a training session in July or August visit the BOB ICB website here

People from two Aylesbury taxi firms are training to become volunteer 'heart health champions'.

It is part of a pilot scheme run by the public health team at Buckinghamshire Council to support taxi professionals, including drivers, to reduce their risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). 

Three taxi professionals will receive training to support their colleagues understand the importance of heart health and blood pressure, increase awareness of CVD risk factors, and encourage healthy conversations.

In addition, blood pressure monitors will be available to all staff involved in the pilot so they can carry out regular blood pressure checks easily. The scheme will be evaluated to see what impact it has had on people's health. 

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust’s Chief Nurse, Karen Bonner, has been awarded an MBE in recognition of her contribution to nursing, as part of the King Charles III Birthday Honours list. 

Karen (pictured) has been a nurse for over 30 years and is a proud descendant of the Windrush generation; her father came to the UK in 1957 from Jamaica and her mother in 1965 from Barbados.

Karen’s mother had worked as a nursing aid at Stoke Mandeville Hospital near Aylesbury, inspiring her to become a nurse.

We congratulate the Buckinghamshire Community Wellbeing Hub for its achievements over the past year.

This joint project between Buckinghamshire Health and Social Care Academy and Buckinghamshire New University has become a key part of the health system, supporting partnerships, networks and outreach work to improve health outcomes for local people - with a focus on Aylesbury. 

The hub provides a space for health and social care professionals and voluntary and community groups to collaborate and co-locate services to improve the health and wellbeing of local people.

Over the past year, the hub hosted a variety of meetings to support local people with their wellbeing, management of long-term health conditions and ill health prevention.

It also hosts the new Communities of Practice focused on tackling health inequalities - we look forward to working with the hub on this priority.

Stoke Mandeville hospital near Aylesbury has been officially selected by NHS England as one of hospital sites to test and rollout Martha’s rule. The first phase of the programme will be in place at 143 locations across the country by March 2025.

The programme will be managed by the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust's Critical Care Outreach service (pictured) and implemented for adults only. For more details visit the Trust website 

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust has launched a 'passport' for carers of inpatients. 

The Trust wants to support carers to be involved in making decisions, care planning and giving, with the agreement of the patient. The 'carer passport' will allow carers to:

• Visit out of normal visiting hours.
• Provide assistance with personal care, meals and drinks.
• Be actively involved in meetings about their loved one.
• Be involved in discussion and planning for the discharge of their loved one.
• Benefit from reduced car parking fees.

For more details visit the Trust website here 

Simon Kearey, who works for BOB ICB, has been given the award for services to the community in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. 

The award was part of King Charles III Birthday Honours list which was announced in June.

Simon’s dedication and hard work includes being Chair of Wycombe Youth Action and Wycombe Museum, Trustee of Discover Bucks Museum (Bucks County Museum), Chair of the Chiltern Society and also Chair of the Ridgeway National Trail Partnership, as well as being a parish councillor.

Simon is a senior programme manager in BOB ICB's primary care team.

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust is delighted that its pre-operative assessment team has been shortlisted in this year’s HSJ Patient Safety Awards in the Safety Improvement through Technology Award category.

The team was shortlisted following its work to review the service and find smarter, more cost-effective and efficient ways of working to meet the rise in demand for surgery.  

For more details about the entry visit the Trust website here

Oxfordshire residents are being invited to share their experiences of health and social care services by meeting with local NHS and county council leaders at community events this summer.

Health and Social Care Connections will be hosted by the local NHS - led by BOB ICB in partnership with Oxfordshire County Council, which provides adult social care in the county.

Health and Social Care Connections will visit a range of community events throughout Oxfordshire this summer. And with the support of partners, including Age UK Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire Community Voluntary Association and Active Oxfordshire, the engagement roadshow will stop off at smaller community groups for conversations in established settings.

As well as hearing from residents, senior leaders will be offering an insight into the future of health and social care, including talking through the newer services being delivered closer to home. These include:

• Discharge to Assess – a programme that supports people to return home from hospital as soon as they are medically fit to do so, including the provision of immediate support at home to help with a person’s continued recovery.
• Hospital at Home – providing clinical support - traditionally only available in  hospital - in a person’s home.
• Urgent Community Response – a combination of services providing urgent care at home rather than going to an Emergency Department.
• Integrated Neighbourhood Teams – expertise from primary care, secondary care, social care providers and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) to ensure there is co-ordinated care around the patient and supporting people to be cared for safely at home.

A list of places where the Health and Social Care Connections are visiting is available online here: Health and Social Care Connections | BOB ICB

OUH At a Glance, a brief guide to Oxford University Hospitals (OUH), has been published. This new guide provides a summary of what OUH is and what it does.

It features mini case studies about recent innovations and improvements to patient care, as well as the latest statistics from the 2023/24 financial year including:

• More than 1.2 million planned (elective) outpatient appointments
• More than 155,000 attendances at emergency departments in Oxford and Banbury
• Almost 7,500 babies delivered by maternity services throughout Oxfordshire.

OUH At a Glance is available to view online on the Issuu platform.

Unpaid carers in Oxfordshire are being urged to come forward to check if they are receiving all the support that they are entitled to.

There is financial, practical, and emotional support available to unpaid carers, much of which is provided by Carers Oxfordshire, a partnership between Action for Carers Oxfordshire and Rethink Mental Illness, with funding support from Oxfordshire County Council.

More information can be found on the Carers Oxfordshire website. 

People in and around Kidlington near Oxford can now reach out for mental health help and support thanks to the launch of a new Keystone Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub in the town centre.

The hub was officially opened by the Chair of Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, David Walker, at a special event that brought together staff who will be working at the site and colleagues from other organisations who have co-collaborated. 

You can watch the opening of the hub on That's Oxford TV channel 

The Trust has already opened Keystone Hubs in Castle Quays, Banbury, Bury Street, Abingdon, and Cowley Road, Oxford. Plans are underway for another hub to open in Wantage mid-July 2024. 

Oxfordshire residents who receive a dementia diagnosis now have the opportunity to attend support sessions that have been created with the help of people who are living with the condition themselves.

Dementia Oxfordshire, a service provided by Age UK Oxfordshire with funding support from Oxfordshire County Council, has worked with a group of experts who are living with the condition, to devise post-diagnostic education sessions for people who have recently had a diagnosis of dementia.

Anyone in Oxfordshire with a recent diagnosis of dementia is welcome to attend an education session, taking place at various venues across the county and also online. Full details can be found on Dementia Oxfordshire’s website.

Another successful 12 months for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, packed with exceptional contributions from colleagues across all services, was celebrated at this year’s annual staff awards.

This year the Trust saw a record number of nominations for colleagues and teams across the organisation and, as always, the judging panel had a tough time selecting the nominees and eventual winners.

Presentations were made for 16 awards, in individual and team categories. Each award was aligned with an NHS People Promise and this year the event celebrated the themes of 'Our OHFT Team' and 'Kindness'.

The event was delivered by the Trust’s Health and Wellbeing Team (pictured), and  individual awards were presented by members of the Trust's executive and senior managers. For more info visit the Oxford Health website here

A public meeting to discuss emerging plans for additional future services for the community hospital, has been rearranged by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust because of the pre-election period. 

The meeting was scheduled for June but will now take place on Thursday 11 July in the Lockinge room at the Beacon in Wantage (6pm-7.30pm). 

It will provide local people with an opportunity to discuss emerging plans for additional future services for the community hospital, including refurbishment designs. 

Feedback from this meeting will also form part of the final submission for Community Infrastructure Levy funding. For more details visit the Trust website here

With botox and fillers continuing to grow in popularity, businesses that administer them in Oxfordshire have been the focus of an ongoing project by Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards team with the aim of protecting young people from underage sales.

The project’s focus has been to work with those who administer botox and fillers for cosmetic purposes to ensure they are aware of legislation and taking appropriate action to prevent underage sales.

Overall, 27 businesses were visited by trading standards, which found that most of them were aware of the legal and ethical requirements to not inject anyone under 18. Where required, support and advice was provided.

Support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is changing in Oxfordshire.

A partnership of organisations is working together with parents, carers and young people to identify how to improve services. If you have a child with emerging or identified SEND, your voice matters.

Have your say in a survey, which is now open, to capture the thoughts of people across the county. 

For more details and to take part in the survey (which closes on 12 July) visit Oxfordshire County Council's website here

A projected 1,200 tonnes of carbon will be saved every year at the Horton General Hospital in Banbury following the completion of a decarbonisation and energy efficiency scheme.

Insulation upgrades and energy efficient heating and ventilation system improvements, as well as heat pumps and solar panels, have been installed as part of the £6.5m project.

A similar project at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford is due to be completed by the end of 2025. Pictured are solar panels installed at Horton General Hospital. 

It’s been a successful year for two programmes Move Together and YouMove which encourage active lifestyles to keep people healthy.

The programmes are coordinated by Active Oxfordshire in partnership with local district councils and are partly funded by BOB ICB to get people fitter and healthier.

Move Together supports people with long term health conditions be more active – its key headlines over the past year included:

• An increase in the number of referrals and assessments
• Over 2,000 people referred, a 21% increase on the previous year
• 60 per cent of participants increasing their activity levels
• Nearly all participants would recommend it to a friend or family member.

The impact the programme had on local health services included:  

• Participants recorded 36% fewer GP appointments in the 4-weeks prior to their 3-month review. This is equavilent to a saving of four GP appointments per participant per year.
• There was a 28% reduction in 111/out-of-hours demand in the 4 weeks prior to the 3-month review, compared with their initial assessment.
• Participants also reported 12% fewer falls.

You can view these stats in the Move Together report for 2023/24.

YouMove supports young people and their families to stay active and have fun. Its key highlights over the past year included:

• over 10,000 people from 2,700 families - who receive free school meals - joined the initiative
• Children taking part have increased activity levels by over two hours each week
• Nearly all users believe the scheme is making a big difference to their family’s health.
• For more details view here the YouMove report for 2023/24.

Members of the public are being asked to give their views on mental health services to help shape provision in Oxfordshire for the next 10 years.

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust's Mental Health Outcomes Improvement Team is working on an important programme of work to make a better mental health care system for adults in the county.

The programme is a shared effort between Oxford Health, BOB ICB, Oxfordshire County Council and third sector partner. The survey closes on 15 July. You can take part in the survey via the Trust website here.

Felicity Taylor-Drewe will take up the role of Chief Operating Officer of Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) in October 2024.

Felicity (pictured) is currently Chief Operating Officer at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Felicity said: "I'm looking forward to joining the team at OUH later this year. I am ambitious about ensuring people get the care they need in the right place by looking at how we can work more collaboratively with partner organisations, not only to provide quality care in hospital but also to support patients to return to their place of residence at the earliest opportunity."

For more details visit the OUH website.

Healthwatch Oxfordshire is holding a public event on Tuesday 16 July (1pm-2pm) to showcase its work over the past year.

Everyone is welcome to take part and ask questions in the online event - as part of its Annual Report 2023/24 - to join the Zoom meeting follow this link

If you can't attend but would like to submit a question, please email hello@healthwatchoxfordshire.co.uk

More than 2,800 nominations were received for the Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) Staff Recognition Awards 2024 – congratulations to all staff, volunteers, and fundraisers who were nominated, and thank you to everyone who took the time to nominate.

We can now reveal the finalists in each category in advance of the Staff Recognition Awards event at Oxford Town Hall on Thursday 5 September.

Oxford Hospitals Charity generously supports the OUH Staff Recognition Awards.  

The hospital based in Reading was delighted to celebrate the birth of triplets last month.

Mum Sarah was supported by the fantastic specialist multi-birth team of midwives and doctors at the hospital. They were with her every step of the pregnancy, from regular scans and appointments, to encouraging Sarah when it all felt too much.

Sarah said: “My whole pregnancy and birth with Royal Berkshire was amazing. My birth was successful because everyone at Royal Berkshire Maternity suite was good at what they do. I would choose the whole team again. A very big thank you to everyone, you were amazing.”

Delivering triplets was very special occasion for the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, congratulations Sarah, from all of us!’

Health leaders from Finland’s Ministry of Health and Social Affairs visited the NHS Berkshire Talking Therapies team (pictured) to see how they could set up a similar offer for patients with mental health needs in their country.

This service is widely recognised as being one of NHS’s success stories with some of the most extensive evidence bases in the world. The team were delighted to share the way they work and how they approach things.

This follows a similar visit by the Norwegian ministry of health last year – which has returned the favour by inviting the Talking Therapies team to visit Norway. 

Find out more about NHS Berkshire Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression

Last month, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust staff attended the national commemoration event marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the largest naval, air and military operation in history.

A contingent of 120 colleagues, including those from our Op COURAGE Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Service, were among the 4,000 specially invited guests at the event in Southsea, Portsmouth.

The event, which was attended by King Charles III and Queen Camilla and the Prince of Wales, was an opportunity to honour the surviving D-Day 80 Veterans and remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

Find out more on the Trust website here 

The South-East-wide Op COURAGE military mental health service, based in Reading and led by Berkshire Healthcare, has secured accreditation under a prestigious Royal College of Psychiatrists’ scheme’

Joining the Quality Network for Veterans Mental Health Services involves a rigorous 12 week review process involving external sector experts. 

Michaela Waspe, Op COURAGE Service Manager, said: "Going through this process has enabled us to benchmark the quality of specialist mental health treatment we provide to military veterans, get impartial guidance about how we can improve what we do for vulnerable people we support and be part of a Network to enable ongoing improvements in future." Visit the Op Courage website to find out more

Pictured (l-r) Karen Haswell, Maria Warburton and Michaela Waspe from the Op COURAGE team which is managed by Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. 

Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust celebrated the occasion last month by taking its health bus on the road so its learning disability team could meet with communities across the county. 

This year’s theme was ‘Do you see me?’ and the team focused on how communities can be more accessible and inclusive for people with learning disabilities by sharing tips, advice and information from both practitioners and those with lived experience.

Members of the public were able to join in with a range of activities and games, as well as find out information about services and the networks of support available in the local area.

Find out more on the Trust website here 

Congratulations to Mark Foulkes, Macmillan Lead Cancer Nurse and Nurse Consultant at the Berkshire Cancer Centre, for his MBE in King Charles III Birthday Honours list 2024.

The award recognises Mark's services to nursing, including his work during Covid-19 and for launching the Acute Oncology Service at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in 2015.

For more details on his achievements visit the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust website see here