23rd March 2020
Dear Provider
For information
I am receiving daily emails seeking assurances about payments and contingencies so I wanted to set minds at ease and confirm that with respect to our current financial commitments, any impact of Covid-19 on your service will not be an impediment to payment for your organisation. It is in our mutual interests that services remain sustainable and viable going forward – we understand that cashflow can be challenging for providers at the best of times and we will do everything we can to maintain business as usual. However, we do recognised that the delivery of service may need to be changed over the coming weeks and ask that if you do need to adapt services you register this and forward a revised business continuity/service plan to Suzanne.lowden@edinburgh.gov.uk.
Please be assured that we have recognised the need for advanced planning for a pandemic across the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership and with this in mind, plans are to develop and enhance what’s already in place for winter and flu preparation, as well as planning for the worst case scenario of significant levels of the population being affected, significant levels of them being unwell and substantial need for acute beds to be focussed on caring for patients.
The EHSP Continuity contact, Alana Nabulsi has been asked to pull together weekly data on community capacity and she may therefore be in touch with some of you individually about how best we can collate this information. We will use this oversight to ensure that we can prioritise all efforts to deliver care to those most in need.
Finally, NHS Scotland remains the most up to date place for advice and guidance and I would encourage you to check their website accordingly https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/infections-and-poisoning/coronavirus-covid-19
Regards
Moira Pringle
Chief Finance Officer
Edinburgh Integration Joint Board
