Archive for November, 2009

Following the launch of the new Carers Strategy we are inviting Carers to join a group to work with services to support its delivery, putting their voice at the centre of the work. As a member of the group you will have an active role in making sure Carers views and needs are included at every stage of its development.

What is the ‘Carers Strategy Group’:

• Responsible for the delivery of the Carers Strategy
• Carers can positively challenge the work of local services
• Carers can ensure that services deliver what was promised
• Staff involved include Wandsworth Council, Social services, Mental Health Trust, NHS Wandsworth and Voluntary Sector Organisations

How do I find out more?

Contact Daniel at the Carers Centre on 020 8675 0811 before 14th December

You will receive full training as well as ongoing support from Carers Centre staff.

Please note this group is specifically for unpaid carers.

A&E and ‘Urgent care’ are at the top of the list of topics in this feedback from the November meeting of the PEC committee with the NHS Wandsworth Management Team. Londoners are very keen – rather too keen – on using their A&E departments. Emergency and unplanned hospital admissions are running about 9% ahead of the planned provision. 7pm is the peak time which strongly suggests, writes Andrew, that is the time when GP should be offering walk in services. People going to A&E are saying they cannot see their GPs then. Do the younger residents of Wandsworth who come from parts of Europe where hospital is the first stop and primary care facilities like GPs are not the norm, understand how things work here? Andrew calls for a look at ways of changing the ways many of us are using A&E departments to make sure we all know that there are lots of places other than A&E to get urgent treatment.

Will the Primary Care Scorecard help?

Soon you will be seeing a table that ranks GP performance in a way that will be intelligible and useable for members of the public. This will be the ‘Primary Care Scorecard’ which will make comparisons between local GP practices. Andrew hopes that the final version of the scorecard will show both individual practices who are poor performers and areas of service where particular practices are performing poorly. He calls for action by the PCT to decommission consistently failing practices, tell their patients why and find them alternatives which offer better quality service.

Are You Ready to Share?

There is a system whereby your records can be shared over something called the EMIS Web System. This makes your medical records available when you are being treated in an emergency when looking at your GP medical notes or hospital records may not be possible. You will be asked for your consent for this sharing by your GP (if you have not been already). You have the right to take a look at them before they are uploaded to check their accuracy. The PEC committee are going to do a Privacy Impact Assessment to make sure that this is all in the patients’ interests.

Next Meetings

Andrew Craig reports in his capacity as the Lay Member on the PEC committee which regularly meets with the Wandsworth PCT management. The PEC meets again on 1st December and the NHS Wandsworth Board on 2nd December. This is a public meeting and you can find information about time and place here.

You are invited to a free event: Revolutionising public involvement in healthcare where on 30th November, Patient Opinion is launching its mental health platform and they would like you to be involved. They are inviting you to attend a free full day Mental Health conference where they hope to be joined by a mix of LINks organisation members and service users, so please extend this invite to those who may have an interest in attending.

Booking

To book your place at the event, please call 0114 281 6256 or email Lee.Alexander@patientopinion.org.uk
For further information on this event, please visit the website.
When:
30 Nov 2009 – 09:30am
Where:
The Resource Centre
356 Holloway Road, N7 6PA
London

For more information about Patient Opinion see our own site – who they are and what they do, check them out on the LINks website

Just a reminder that our next meeting is open to the public and starts with an Executive business meeting from 6 pm on Monday 23rd November at York Gardens Library, Battersea, followed at 7.15 pm by refreshments and a presentation and open discussion about being discharged from hospital and the difficulties that can arise. You can see the full set of papers for this meeting here.

If you would like to make any comments on what we are going to talk about, please get in touch with Sarah at Wandsworth Care Alliance by noon on Monday 23rd November. You can reach her on 020 8696 1709 or by email sarah@wandcareall.org.uk

We look forward to seeing you.

2 reports and an important consultation are the main items of interest for Wandsworth people in the CQC November newsletter.We have already published information on the ratings the Commission gave our local healthcare suppliers in our piece dated 20th October.

GPs feature in both reports.

How did you get on with taking the pills after leaving hospital? Were you given enough help?

The first report looks at how well patients’ medication is managed after patients leave hospital. The CQC visited 12 primary care trusts (PCTs), and surveyed 280 of their GP practices.

During our visits, the CQC saw some evidence of good practice, but also found the following concerns:

* Information shared about patients moving between GPs and hospitals is often patchy, incomplete and not shared quickly enough
* GP patient records are not always updated by clinical staff
* Too few patients are offered discussions with their GP about managing their medication
* GPs are not consistently reporting medication incidents and errors, and PCTs are not always monitoring them.

Worries about out of hours services from GPs

On the basis of its work with five trusts, the CQC believes there might be a widespread problem with PCTs across the country not monitoring GP out-of-hours services closely enough.

It says PCTs must look at details like the quality of clinical decisions, the efficiency of call handling, the adequacy of staffing and doctors’ training in order to rigorously monitor performance.

The work was triggered by the tragic case of Mr David Gray, a patient treated by an out-of-hours locum doctor from Germany who died following the administration of 100mg of diamorphine.

The CQC’s enquiries continue.

The CQC Strategy Plan 2010-15

The CQC is asking for your views on how best it should be going about using its powers and resources to achieve the best possible for people in England. Find out how you can get involved here.

The Wandsworth LINk wants you to be aware of the following important advice from NHS Wandsworth

At risk residents are urged to get the swine flu vaccine

The NHS is urging local residents to take up the swine flu vaccination. The vaccine is being offered first to people most likely to become seriously ill if they catch swine flu.

The priority groups for vaccination are:

· Adults and children between six months and 65 years of age in the current seasonal flu vaccine clinical ‘at risk’ groups. e.g. who have a long-term health condition, including chronic lung disease and heart disease;

· Pregnant women;

· People who live in the same house as someone whose immune system is compromised by disease or treatment, and

· People aged 65 and over in the current seasonal flu vaccine clinical “at risk” groups.

NHS Wandsworth’s Joint Medical Director, Dr Dave Finch said: “We know that for the majority of cases swine flu is a mild illness, but for some people, mostly with other existing health problems, it can be more serious. The vaccine is our best line of defence against swine flu, and I urge everyone in the priority groups to take up the offer of being vaccinated. Your GP will contact you to let you know if you are in one of the at-risk groups.”

Residents in the priority groups who are not registered with a GP can arrange to have their free swine vaccination at Tooting Walk-in Centre by calling 020 8700 0505.

Clinic times are:

Wednesday 11, 18 and 25 November 4pm – 7pm

Thursday 12, 19 and 26 November 7am – 10am

Saturday 14, 21 and 28 November 5.30pm – 8pm

Dr Finch continued “We are seeing increasing numbers of cases in the local community and the number of people catching the illness may rise as we move into the winter season Being vaccinated against swine flu is voluntary but the NHS wants to protect as many people in the community as possible. ”

The swine flu vaccines have under-gone a series of stringent tests to be granted a licence by the European Medicines Agency and have undergone extensive trials involving thousands of people.”

One of the best things that everyone can do to protect themselves and others from swine flu and ordinary seasonal flu is to follow good basic hygiene, said Dr Finch, especially covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, placing used tissues in a bin and remembering to wash your hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus.”

The swine flu vaccination will not protect you against seasonal flu so if you are at-risk it is important to have both vaccinations.”

For more information on swine flu, visit www.nhs.uk or call the Swine Flu Information Line on 0800 1 513 513.

LINks Exchange Newsletter Issue 17

There are three main topics in the latest issue

Campaign

The Department of Health has launched a campaign to ‘promote the meaning and merits of LINks – among the whole community and among health and social care care professionals. with the ultimate aim of encouraging engagement and participation in your LINk’ The Department is using a social PR company – Forster – who will be coming out to LINks to work with them on this.

Last change to have your say on Quality Accounts

In High Quality Care for All, Lord Darzi said publishing quality performance would help patients and their carers make better informed choices about health care and allow clinical teams to benchmark, compare and improve their performance.

High Quality Care for All proposed that all providers of NHS care should produce Quality Accounts to provide the public with information on the quality of care they provide. The Department of Health has introduced legislation to require the publication of Quality Accounts from April 2010. Designing the format and content of Quality Accounts, is being facilitated by the DH, and steered by stakeholders, including the regulators, NHS management, clinicians, professional organisations, patient groups and the public.

The lessons learnt in a pilot from producing Quality Reports , alongside those from the Quality Accounts engagement process, are being used to develop the detailed guidance that the Department of Health aims to publish in early 2010, following a consultation on the proposed content of Quality Accounts over the autumn 2009. This process will also inform the Care Quality Commission and Monitor in their approach to developing the regulatory system for healthcare.

In September the Department of Health launched a consultation which you can find here.

The consultation closes on Thursday 10th December.

Indemnity Update

A number of LINks have asked about this topic and whether LINks are covered by a indemnity policy set up by the Secretary of State. Some LINks have concerns that an authorised representative making a report following a visit might be reluctant to make a candid and honest report in case the business owner makes a claim for defamation against them personally.

The answer is no – it is up to the local authority – Wandsworth in our case. If you feel that you might need such a policy, you can see the advice on the LINks Exchange website and take it up with the LINks office.

NHS Wandsworth Changes Plans

Although NHS Wandsworth have consulted on polyclinic developments across the borough, it is likely that several of the new polyclinic hubs which were planned to bring a wide range of services together on a single local site will not now be developed. Of greatest concern are the changes to the plans for north Wandsworth and Battersea. The key hub for this area was going to be a new comprehensive primary care centre in Grant Road which would have provided primary healthcare and an urgent care centre with a wide range of diagnostic equipment on site.

Use of existing and other planned facilities

The new centre is not now likely to be built, with local residents having to rely on facilities contained within St John’s Therapy Centre and the new primary care centre to be opened next year under the railway arches at Clapham Junction.

Will the new services offer what is needed?

The key question is whether there will now be the complete range of healthcare services provided on a single site near Clapham Junction to offer a real alternative to local A&E services for residents needing urgent care. The review of polyclinic developments across the whole Borough will be reported to the PCT Board at the beginning of December 2009.

What is the Wandsworth LINk doing about this?

Wandsworth LINk representatives, as part of their campaign to seek improvements to local health and social care services, will be trying to ensure that NHS Wandsworth comes up with a plan for urgent care services in north Wandsworth and Battersea which will match the facilities available to residents of other parts of the Borough at hospitals such as Queen Mary’s Roehampton and St George’s.

If you have comments on this development, please use the comment box.