COVID-19 : Eight urgent actions: Aug 7th 2020
1.Protect the most vulnerable from COVID-19, with enhanced analysis and community engagement, to mitigate the risks associated with relevant protected characteristics and social and economic conditions; and better engage those communities whoneed most support.
2.Restore NHS services inclusively, so that they are used by those in greatest need. This will be guided by new, core performance monitoring of service use and outcomes among those from the most deprived neighbourhoods and from Black and Asian communities, by 31 October.
3.Develop digitally enabled care pathways in ways which increase inclusion, including reviewing who is using new primary, outpatient and mental health digitally enabled care pathways by 31 March.
4.Accelerate preventative programmes which proactively engage those at greatest risk of poor health outcomes; including more accessible flu vaccinations, better targeting of long-term condition prevention and management programmes such as obesity reduction programmes, health checks for people with learning disabilities, and increasing the continuity of maternity carers.
5.Particularly support those who suffer mental ill health,as society and the NHS recover from COVID-19, underpinned by more robust data collection and monitoring by 31 December.
6.Strengthen leadership and accountability, with a named executive board member responsible for tackling inequalities in place in September in every NHS organisation, alongside action to increase the diversity of senior leaders.
7.Ensure datasets are completeand timely, to underpin an understanding of and response to inequalities. All NHS organisations should proactively review and ensure the completeness of patient ethnicity data by no later than 31 December, with general practice prioritising those groups at significant risk of COVID-19 from 1 September.
8.Collaborate locally in planning and delivering action to address health inequalities, including incorporating in plans for restoring critical services by 21September; better listening to communities and strengthening local accountability; deepening partnerships with local authorities and the voluntary and community sector; and maintaining a continual focus on implementation of these actions, resources and impact, including a full report by 31 March.
Implementing phase 3 of the NHS response to the COVID-19 pandemic