In North Central London we are changing the way we deliver services so that we can continue to meet the health and care needs of our residents during the pandemic. We have accelerated and adapted the use of HealtheIntent, a population health management system, to support our response to the pandemic and ensure resources are directed to residents that need them most. The Diabetes Prevention Programme has switched its services online and will continuing offering personalised coaching support to residents at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. In Primary Care over 13,300 patients made use of an online consultation tool last week enabling requests to be triaged and directed to the most appropriate service.

Over the past week we have been busy preparing preliminary plans for the next phase of our response to the pandemic, and we have now submitted our high level plans to NHS England for review. Partners representing councils, public health, commissioners and providers are working very closely to deliver integrated support to help care home staff and residents. Our response has included the provision of support at borough and NCL-wide level, and we are in daily contact with care providers to ensure that resources are targeted where there is most need.

This week has seen NCL’s health and care system begin to move into the second phase in our response to the pandemic. With lots of work ongoing to plan for the future this is also a good time to reflect on our response to date and what we have learnt.

As a key part of our response, we are continuing to work to maximise the number of staff being tested for Covid-19, so far during April over 5,000 staff have been tested. We've introduced a teledermatology pathway for suspected skin cancer referrals at the Royal Free London and Whittington Health hospitals. This provides us with an alternative so that face-to-face dermatology and GP consultations are only given to those patients that must be seen in person, helping us to minimise risk to patients and staff. We have increased community-based bed capacity across North Central London to help us effectively manage the increased demand for acute services resulting from Covid-19 and the subsequent number of hospital discharges.