According to Health Service Journal, internal draft guidance from NHS England to healthcare trusts advise: "Trusts should continue to actively explore and develop opportunities to grow their external (non-NHS) income Private patient services continue to be a significant source of material opportunity in the NHS." Demand for private treatment has risen during the pandemic with provider Spires reporting income up 80% since 2019. The NHS waiting list for treatment is currently at 6 million and may reach 14 million before it starts to come down.

Reading's annual Health Inequalities conference will be held from 11.30am to 1pm on Thursday 31st March 2022. Please see the information flyer available below. The meeting is organised by Utulivu. Speakers from Reading Borough Council, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, and the University of Reading will be among those giving presentations use Meeting ID: 767 479 2806 Passcode: 689916

 South Reading Patient Voice will be at Southcote Wellbeing Day. We are hoping to talk to people about unmet need from the NHS.

The national inquiry into the handling of Covid-19 has published draft terms of reference for.consultation. The consultation is open until 7th April. For more about this click here .

South Reading Patient Voice meets at 6pm on Wed 16th March 2022 online via Zoom. Alison Foster, MA, RMN, Programme Director - Building Berkshire Together - Hospital Redevelopment will talk about the Royal Berkshire Redevelopment Programme. To attend please contact Information Officer, Tom Lake

The combined Primary Care Commissioning Committees of the BOB Integrated Care System meet from 10am - 12noon on Thursday 17th March. To observe the meeting please click on this link . See below for papers.

Reading's Health and Wellbeing board meets at 2pm on Friday 18th March 2022 via Microsoft Teams. The agenda covers Covid-19 impact, matters relating to the organisation of the nascent Integrated Care System, integrated working between local authority and NHS, the new joint Health and Wellbeing strategy for Berkshire West as a whole, an update on the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment an input to NHS planning and the state of health in Reading. To observe the meeting please email NIcky Simpson at nicky.simpson@reading.gov.uk 

South Reading Patient Voice meets at 6pm on Wednesday, 16th February to discuss matters relating to our local NHS.

Currently UK Health Security Agency publishes Covid-19 case counts for England by giving the number of first infections only. But with Omicron variant many people are being re-infected. From 31st January 2022 the case count will count episodes of Covid-19 infection. A new episode starts with a Covid-19 positive test more than 90 days from the last positive Covid-19 test. Click here for the formal announcement.

NHS ENgland has set priorities for 2022/3 in a planning guidance document issued on Christmas eve . The 10 priorities are as follows:

1. Invest in our workforce with more people (for example, the additional roles in primary care, expansion of mental health and community services, and tackling substantive gaps in acute care) and new ways of working, and by strengthening the compassionate and inclusive culture needed to deliver outstanding care.
2. Respond to COVID-19 ever more effectively delivering the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme and meeting the needs of patients with COVID-19.
3. Deliver significantly more elective care to tackle the elective backlog, reduce long waits and improve performance against cancer waiting times standards.
4. Improve the responsiveness of urgent and emergency care (UEC) and build community care capacity keeping patients safe and offering the right care, at the right time, in the right setting. This needs to be supported by creating the equivalent of 5,000 additional beds, in particular through expansion of virtual ward models, and includes eliminating 12-hour waits in emergency departments (EDs) and minimising ambulance handover delays.
5. Improve timely access to primary care maximising the impact of the investment in primary medical care and primary care networks (PCNs) to expand capacity, increase the number of appointments available and drive integrated working at neighbourhood and place level.
6. Improve mental health services and services for people with a learning disability and/or autistic people maintaining continued growth in mental health investment to transform and expand community health services and improve access.
7. Continue to develop our approach to population health management, prevent ill-health and address health inequalities using data and analytics to redesign care pathways and measure outcomes with a focus on improving access and health equity for under-served communities.
8. Exploit the potential of digital technologies to transform the delivery of care and patient outcomes achieving a core level of digitisation in every service across systems.
9. Make the most effective use of our resources moving back to and beyond pre-pandemic levels of productivity when the context allows this.
10. Establish ICBs and collaborative system working working together with local authorities and other partners across their ICS to develop a five-year strategic plan for their system and places.