I am delighted to present this, the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System Joint Forward Plan for 2024-2029. In this refresh of our Joint Forward Plan, we are recommitting to the strategic ambitions we developed with our partners last year. These ambitions are the foundations for how we will further develop and improve our services to better meet the needs of our population and communities. We know that we can only do this successfully by building on our existing joint work with local government, listening to our people and communities, to deliver change.
As is the case for many newly established Integrated Care Systems, we face a number of significant challenges. The Covid pandemic exacerbated health inequalities in our population, our primary care services are under extreme pressure. Demand on our mental health, urgent and emergency services are significant, we have long waits for planned treatments and we are not meeting nationally set standards in relation to cancer care. Collectively, our providers are carrying significant vacancies and we over-rely on bank and agency staff to fill rotas – as a result the quality of care we offer can sometimes suffer. We have a significant underlying structural deficit, and we are not meeting our planned financial position.
Within these many challenges, we are also a system that has high ambitions to improve the health and wellbeing of the population that we serve. During 2023/24 we have delivered impressive and long-lasting improvements and have had many successes.
In addition to recommitting to our strategic ambitions, this revised plan highlights the good progress we have made in 2023/24, a number of which have been recognised nationally, for example our Anchor Programme, virtual hospital, Stewardship and innovations such as Teledermatology and our Happy Hubs and wellbeing cafes that provide a one stop wellness shop within our community. In December 2023, primary care delivered over 7% more consultations than in the same period the year before. This is being supported by new roles, technology and self-referrals pathways that will help residents access the best care to meet their needs.
We are committed to continuing to work together across health, local government and with our communities to do all that we can to improve outcomes for our local population. The specifics of how we will do that will follow this Joint Forward Plan as we finalise and publish our Operational Plans for 2024/25.