Population health improvements by integrated care boards (ICBs) has been assessed by NHS England as part of its annual performance review, with findings focused on operational targets and challenges.
Operations, such as elective care, urgent care, maternity, cancer and mental health provision are some of areas highlighted in the summary report.
Several ICBs were praised for operational success and improvement, such as Suffolk and North East Essex, which has reduced long community waits and met targets for urgent care, and North East and North Cumbria which has reached the 78% urgent and emergency care (UEC) services 4-hour standard and reduced long elective waits.
South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, North Central London and Dorset ICBs were all noted for making progress in some areas and Cheshire and Merseyside was praised for delivering against national cancer standards and reducing the elective backlog.
Meeting targets was found to be a challenge for many ICBs, particularly around urgent care, with a number of ICBs having faced difficulty with this specific area.
At Lancashire and South Cumbria, performance against operating priorities was ‘considerably challenged’, the report states.
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland was said to be receiving tier 1 support (the highest level of support) for diagnostics and cancer, and Mid and South Essex was found to face challenges in elective, maternity, urgent care and paediatric care.
NHS England said that, in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, it was providing tier 2 support in all areas to help lead to improvements in urgent care, elective care and cancer.
NHS England raised concerns about growing numbers of inpatients with a learning disability in Birmingham and Solihull and also ongoing concerns around maternity care in Birmingham, which the Maternity Safety Support Programme is addressing.
The report noted that Herefordshire and Worcestershire needed to develop a longer-term mental health services strategy.
In terms of waiting lists, South East London had made progress with reducing elective waiting lists, though had not removed those waiting the longest, while South West London was described as needing to reduce waiting lists too.
This assessment on improving population health and healthcare comes during major structural change for ICBs following NHS England’s instructions last March to cut their workforce by 50% by October 2025.
Since then, they have gone through a range of changes to meet this requirement, including plans to cluster or merge.
