With staff sickness at its lowest since the pandemic began, plans can now be drawn up on how Kent's hospitals will recover from coronavirus.

During a virtual meeting of the recently merged NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), the governing body spoke about how it is hoped the peak of Covid-19 has now passed.

Accountable officer Wilf Williams revealed that staff sickness is at 6% - the lowest its been, and the number of acute hospitals beds now being occupied by Covid-19 patients is down to 11% from 15% last week.

Issues around PPE have been managed and are now "more stable" - with settings stocked up with three plus days of supply across all the key items.

Mr Williams said: "The activity is coming down and the system is very much able to cope. The peak of pressure appears to have passed."

It means plans can begin to be formed on how other areas of the healthcare system can be boosted and in some areas, reinstated.

Ian Ayres, managing director, said: "We have started to talk with providers about how to restore and recover non-urgent services in a measured and planned way, so hospitals can continue to manage Covid-19 as well as not over burden staff.

"That includes a system that has the ability to flex up and flex down if we have further waves of Covid.

"The immediate priority is to restore the services that if we don't put them back rapidly may risk harming patients, and identify those services where we can take slightly longer to restore them."

Priority will be given to cancer services, mental health and cardiology type work.

Dr Mike von Fraunhofer highlighted the need for people living with dementia to also be considered, stating that around 100 people are still waiting for dementia assessments, which are not currently operating.

Mr Williams said: "There will almost certainly be a backlog of harm that we will need to pick up as part of our recovery plan."

But many services are still operating and GPs are keen to emphasise that they are still open for business, in light of the drop in cancer referrals because patients are not coming forward.

Dr Katie Collier said "We've talked a lot about cancer demand being down and as a GP I've certainly noticed that.

"We get a lot of people apologising saying, 'I know you're very busy doctor but I need to talk to you about this.'

"As a county should we get a message out to say we're still here? Don't store up your problems."

It was acknowledged that a national campaign to promote the services still operating was imminent.

The governing body also discussed how it would be keen to adopt a number of key practices that have been successfully implemented during the crisis.

Mr Williams said: "The use of virtual technology has expanded enormously and we feel there are many beneficial aspects of that. There are people saying across the system that we need to maintain a lot of the good things that have come out of this situation.

"It's not about going back to where we were before, I think there's a strong commitment across the NHS and our partners that we need to emerge into a new normal, a better normal and maximise and maintain a lot of the changes we have seen, but also take them much further."

Changes include the increased used of video consultations for GP appointments.

Mr Ayres said: "The changes we made to implement capability to handle Covid were made without the normal engagement and consultation we usually have with local people.

"As we move to embed some of those changes into the long term we need to re-engage with local people and go through the process of discussion, engagement, potential consultation with the public about some of those changes for the long term."

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