NHS North East Lincolnshire CCG (NEL CCG) and Northern Lincolnshire & Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG) came together to hold our second virtual event of 2021 which took place on Wednesday 24th March, 5pm – 6:15pm. 50 members of the public, Accord members, and representatives of local organisations joined the Zoom webinar ‘Way Forward 2021’ to hear about the latest work to roll out the Covid vaccines, tackle the pandemic, and support the health and care system in North East Lincolnshire.

Way Forward 2021 was hosted by Mark Webb, Chair of the CCG. You can view a full recording of the event by clicking here (this link takes you to an external video hosting website.)

Since our last event in January, the Government has announced its roadmap for easing Coronavirus restrictions across the country.

CCG Chief Executive, Rob Walsh, and Dr Peter Melton, CCG Clinical Chief Officer discussed how the borough will recover from the pandemic, as well as looking at the CCGs’ commissioning priorities for the next 12 months, and what national reorganisation of the NHS means for us here in North East Lincolnshire.

Dr Peter Reading, Chief Executive of Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust gave an update on how the Trust responded to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as updating on the progress of the building works taking place at Grimsby.

Dr Ekta Elston, local GP & Medical Director at the CCG provided an update on the role out of the Covid Vaccine programme in our patch and discussed how important volunteers have been in ensuring that our vaccine clinics run efficiently.

Sarah Dawson, CCG Service Lead for Primary Care presented the findings of last year’s survey into the experiences of patients accessing Primary Care during the pandemic and went on to explain what this means for Primary Care services in the future.

Following on from our last event in January, Ivan McConnell, Humber Acute Services Director provided an update on the review into hospital services in the Humber.

Linsay Cunningham, Head of Communications and Engagement at Humber Coast and Vale ICS presented “what matters to you” looking at the Humber Acute services and how the public can get involved in developing the decision-making criteria for the review.

The event closed with a question-and-answer session, giving people the opportunity to quiz our local health and care leaders. A wide range of topics were covered in the questions including the recruitment of doctors into the area, as well as the local Covid vaccine programme. You can read the questions, and answers, by clicking here

 Our next event virtual event will be held in the summer. We will share more information in the coming weeks, and please spread the word to your friends and family and encourage them to join us for our next event.