Archive for April, 2010

New project to get kids smiling

Wednesday 5 May will see the launch event for the SMILE project, which NHS Wandsworth is running in partnership with Wandsworth Borough Council. The event will take place from 3-6pm at the Battersea Arts Centre and will be a chance for health professionals and the public to learn more about this innovative project.

The SMILE project was commissioned to bring together the many initiatives and strategies that are being delivered in Wandsworth relating to the promotion of Positive Emotional Health and Well-Being (PEHWB) for children up to 12 years old.

SMILE means Sharing, Movement, Imagination, Learning and Empathy. These are five key themes to achieving and maintaining positive emotional health and well-being.

The SMILE package of resources includes a DVD, booklet and handbook. The aims of the resource are to:

• Celebrate good practice in Wandsworth early years and primary settings.
• Raise awareness of Wandsworth services that support PEHWB.
• Promote the links between public health and education in early years and primary settings in Wandsworth.
• Support a whole service and organisation approach to PEHWB.

Graeme Markwell, Health Improvement Manager at NHS Wandsworth said:

‘The SMILE project is about much more than just learning. It’s about helping children to develop into adults who are able to cope with life and all the highs and lows it may bring’

For more information visit www.wandsworth.gov.uk/smile

Training for members of Local Involvement Networks, and anyone else who might want to work with them, including Health Scrutiny Committees, Public and Patient Involvment staff and voluntary organisations.

London Monday 17th May

We will be covering:

Legislation

Process

Conduct and behaviour

Web2 – using the Internet to collect and disseminate information Reports – confidentiality, libel, photography and video

We will have contributions from Patient Opinion and the Care Quality Commission

More details of the material to be covered can be found http://www.sochealth.co.uk/news/LINKspower.htm

This will take place 11- 4pm at St Mark’s Church, 249 Old Marylebone Road, NW1 5QT

Cost £70 for one delegate, £110 for two, £150 for three. This includes lunch. Unfunded organisations or individuals please contact us.

Please use our Booking Form

http://www.sochealth.co.uk/confs/Booking.htm

NB we are planning to run a similar session in Huddersfield in June, and we are happy to organise training sessions for any individual Local Involvement Network.

As the election looms, uncertainty prevails. What lies in store for LINks after the election?  

The conservatives have put together their 5 priorities for Patient and Public Involvement which outlines their aim to keep LINks and give them more power and autonomy.

• Tougher inspection to root out failure
• A strong voice for patients
• Power for patients to hold failing hospitals accountable
• An end to box-ticking and targets
• Exposing hospitals to public scrutiny

Click here to read the ConservativesPatient_safety_plan[1] and their  Health Watch Proposal

LAY MEMBER’S HEADLINE FEEDBACK FROM THE NHS WANDSWORTH PROFESSIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (PEC) MEETING WITH THE MANAGEMENT TEAM ON 13 APRIL 2010

Self-Referral Physiotherapy Service Update

The PEC has been supportive of self-referral to physiotherapy.  A successful pilot is running in West Wandsworth (through Queen Mary’s) and a pilot is soon to start in Central Wandsworth (through Wandsworth  Medical Centre at the top of Garrett Lane).   Self referral will be a recognised referral route and will be imbedded into the referral pathway.  There will be a further report on developments in 3 to 4 months.

I welcomed this development, having raised the issue some months ago about self-referral to therapists.  We need to understand the user feedback/evidence  in the West Wandsworth pilot.   This is a good focus for  shifting services, if the community service is robust enough and seeing the right people and changing user behaviour about where they might choose to go and what services they can access. 

Ethical Framework for Priority Setting

This is a draft framework to facilitate the decision making process around priorities, especially in a time of financial restraint and competing demands for funding.  The NHS Constitution has been referenced in compiling it and it reflects the legal and ethical duties of the PCT.   PEC welcomed this tool and it was agreed that when it was fully fledged, it would be used to revisit earlier decisions made about funding obesity (bariatric) surgery and funding for fertility (IVF).    There is an aspiration to share this process with Local Authority councillors (Health OSC in particular) and officers. It can support the new LCCBs (Local Clinical Commissioning Boards).  The June meeting will consider an amended version including weightings for value for money, feasibility and service fit. 

I welcomed this approach to decision making and support sharing the process in a public seminar.  Planned differences in services are acceptable – even desirable – when they reflect evidence based decisions about health needs of the local populations.

Cancer Prevention Action Plan

Cancer and CVD (cardiovascular disease) are the two main causes of death locally.  The mortality rate for cancer is rising and as currently set, the local target (reflecting previous unmet targets) to reduce cancer deaths is not achievable.  Wandsworth is the worst performer in the sector for cancer deaths in people under 75.  Smoking is the greatest cause of cancer locally and the PCT is not doing enough to achieve stop smoking targets.  Reducing smoking  would be the most cost effective thing the local NHS could do to reduce deahs and make savings from smoking-related problems.  Performance on colorectal cancer was also cause for concern locally and there was unsatisfactory uptake of the national bowel cancer screening initiative. Other key areas of activity in the cancern prevention plan included:

• raising awareness and needs assessment
• smoking cessation
• obesity control
• increasing physical activity
• alcohol reduction,
• cancer screening – breast, cervical and bowel
• sun protection and early detection of skin cancer
• HPV vaccination.

Obviously the public’s awareness and willingness to come forward for screening and when symptoms are suspected or detected is essential for success in any prevention programme.   Steps have been taken to address gaps in the PCT’s understanding of how local people understand cancer, eg about skin cancer risks and testicular cancer in younger men. Social marketing aimed at high risk groups is the main tool used to discover user-focused views and a tendering exercise to appoint a company to undertake this work is nearing completion.  

GP Performers List Update

PEC discussed the issue of strengthening language competency for GPs, including those providing out of hours services, and other health care professionals.  The General Medical Council registration procedure did not offer sufficient assurance and as EU/EEA qualified doctors were not required to demonstrate competency in English, it was up to local processes to do this. The PCT’s letter to applicants for the Performers List had been strengthened about language proficiency and the Primary Care Support Service was putting in place a language test. Patients have a right to assume that a doctor who comes to see them at home is competent in English. There was a problem with locums who were not on the Performers List who come from agencies.  The PCT’s out of hours contract (currently with Harmoni) would also be strengthened as part of the current rewriting of the specification prior to re-tendering.  Local GPs using agencies for locums will be advised only to use agencies that require standards of English testing.  The same would be applied to nurses and therapists employed through agencies.  PEC agreed it was essential to assure the public on this issue.

I support this move and would encourage any patient or carer who has had an unsatisfactory experience with a clinician having poor command of English, whatever the setting,  to tell the PCT about this.  

Other Business

It was announced that contracts had been terminated with the folowing three GPs and that they had ceased to trade.  Patients of these practices had been informed and been offered allocations to other practices. 

Dr Daud Khan  87 Northcote Road; Dr Mohamed Sultan and Dr Jawed Ali   138-140  Mitcham Road

 PEC and PCT Board papers are available on the NHS Wandsworth website: www.wandsworth.nhs.uk   contact  Sandra Notridge on 020 8812 7740 or e-mail sandra.notridge@wpct.nhs.uk

Next Meeting of the NHS Wandsworth Board: 

Balham Park Surgery, 236 Balham High Road,  not the Town Hall, starting at 09h30 on Wednesday 28^th April.

Next Meeting of the PEC: 09h30 on Tuesday, 11^th May 2010.

Last night at the open meeting at South Thames College each of the Battersea parliamentary candidates from the three main political parties were asked their view of the current proposed polyclinic hub services for Battersea.

Jane Ellison (Conservative) felt that the current “portacabin” solution in Grant Road was a far cry from what was promised by NHS Wandsworth after the expensive consultation in 2008.  She still felt that a replacement hub on the NHS-owned Bolingbroke Hospital site would have been the best solution.

Martin Linton (Labour) pointed out that the “portacabin” solution was only temporary whilst the permanent base for the GP health centre under the arches was prepared.  He also reiterated NHS Wandsworth commitment to achieving the comprehensive hub on the Grant Road site: a promise made by NHS Wandsworth after referral of their current plans to the Council’s Health Committee by Wandsworth LINk.

Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat) saw the long-term solution being the creation of local health boards which would take over the running of local health services.  Local people would then be able to determine what happened in their own area.

Roger Appleton

Chair Wandsworth LINk

London Ambulance Service would like to invite you to one of our health fairs this Saturday (17 April) where ambulance staff will be offering free blood pressure checks to raise awareness of stroke.

You will also be able to find out how to carry out the FAST test, a simple way of diagnosing a stroke in other people (Face, Arm, Speech, Time to call 999).

Find out if there is an event near you by visiting our website.

Come along to get your blood pressure checked – this simple step could prevent you having a stroke.

And by being able to recognise a stroke in someone else, you could give someone a much better chance of recovery.

The health fairs will run from 10 am to 3 pm and are being held at 19 venues across the capital.

Facts about stroke:

• High blood pressure, which can go undiagnosed in a lot of people, is the biggest risk factor for stroke.
• A stroke, also known as a ‘brain attack’, happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. In many cases someone suffering a stroke can be left with long-term disabilities, while in some cases they can even die.
• The Stroke Association, which is working with the Service on this initiative, says that around 40 per cent of all strokes could be prevented if people with undiagnosed high blood pressure were identified and treated.

If you have any questions about our health fairs, please contact our Communications Department on 020 7921 5113.

CENTRE FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING (CIL) IN WANDSWORTH?

On Thursday 22^nd April, Wandsworth Care Alliance and Wandsworth Council, will be hosting a Workshop event for disabled service users, carers and others, to explore the question of setting up a CIL in Wandsworth.  Speakers from established CILs, the Director of the National Centre for Independent Living, and representatives from Wandsworth Adult Social Services will be there.

The event runs from 11.00am till 3.30pm and will include lots of opportunity for questions.

If you are a disabled person, or have an interest in disability issues, this event is for you.  To register your interest, please contact Susan Wheeler-Kiley, on 020 8516 7768, 07890 780572, or freechoice@wandcareall.org.uk

What is a CIL (Centre for Independent Living)?

In 2005 the Government published a paper called Improving Life Chances for Disabled People.  It contained an important recommendation that all local authorities should have a User Led Organisation in each borough modelled on a centre for independent living, and these should be in place by 2010.

A CIL is an organisation of disabled people that supports and promotes independent living for all disabled people whatever their impairment.  Later models of CILs are based on a consortium of a number of user led organisations, each of which come together to offer service specific or impairment specific expertise.

CILs work on the social model of disability – that is that equality is possible and can be achieved through removing the barriers to social inclusion.  They work across the whole range of disabilities and ages.

A CIL will normally work from a fully accessible base and is staffed and managed by disabled people. 

Services provided might include:

• Advocacy services
• Counselling
• Mediation
• Direct payments services
• Pre and post interview assessments
• Equality and human rights training
• Information and advice
• Access audits and training

Campaigning and promoting/developing services as determined by disabled people are also part of CILs’ activities.

CILs are registered charities receiving funding from local boroughs for the services provided.

A small steering group has now been set up supported by Jim Cowan of Adult Social Services.  Our first venture is to set up the Workshop event on 22^nd April. Our aim is to listen to service users, and gradually work towards the goal of a CIL.

Need for, and advantages of a CIL in Wandsworth

• Since the ending of the Wandsworth Care Alliance Freechoice Project, the physically disabled/sensory impaired community in Wandsworth have had no ‘collective voice’ or real ‘network’.  A CIL offering services across all impairments would reach out to this large community

• There is no strategic user-led disability organisation across all impairments, as there is in most other borough.

• A CIL could work in partnership with Wandsworth towards a Shared Vision, fulfilling even greater user involvement (Taking PRIDE in improving lives)

• Could provide user led advice, peer support, advocacy and brokerage – especially around the Transformation agenda, and finding creative ways of achieving the best possible outcomes for the disabled community.

• Reaching non-service users/those slipping through the gaps, who might potentially be drawn to an independent user led organisation (including those who don’t necessary define themselves as disabled, are wary of approaching social services, or who are unaware of available services)

For further information, contact Susan Wheeler-Kiley at Wandsworth Care Alliance.

Co-Creating Health initiative Self-Management Programme for Depression

The Self-Management Programme for Depression is part of the Co-Creating Health initiative, a three year project set up by The Health Foundation, www.health.org.uk, that aims to embed support for people living with long term conditions into the core of what the NHS and its clinicians do on a daily basis – the initiative is being run in partnership by South West London & St George’s Mental Health Trust and NHS Wandsworth.

The Self Management Programme (SMP) provides an opportunity for individuals to build skills and confidence in managing day to day life with depression.  The programme runs over seven weeks with one 3-hour group session weekly, is free and open to anyone living in Wandsworth who experiences depression. 

Daytime and evening programmes are run at various locations throughout the borough of Wandsworth.

Quotes from past participants

”Throughout the course, I found my confidence building and my hope starting to revive”

“I found the peer support useful, as well as learning the techniques”

“This programme gives respect and dignity to the experience and impact depression has on the individual”

For further info about the programme and initiative can be found at www.swlstg-tr.nhs.uk/cocreatinghealth – there are also testimonials from people who have attended the programme and further details about the course structure and content on the website.

If you would like any more information about the initiative please do not hesitate to contact Hannah Nettle, cc’d into this email – Hannah is taking over as project manager for the initiative from 12^th April.

People with aphasia in Wandsworth now have a new service which gives them the opportunity to meet others, gain a new role and a real purpose in life.

Aphasia, which often occurs after stroke, means people struggle to communicate. Some people can’t speak at all, some just have a few words. It can lead to depression and isolation. ‘It’s a unique experience’ said one person with aphasia.

NHS Wandsworth and Wandsworth Borough Council, have commissioned the charity Connect – the communication disability network to offer a communication support service to work with people with aphasia, to discover new opportunities and develop new roles, promoting confidence in their conversation skills and the chance to feel more involved.

One service on offer is ‘Befriending’ which means people with aphasia visit other people with aphasia in their own homes or in hospital. As they have experienced aphasia themselves, they are in the best position to support others, share tips, and become a friend to people who suddenly find themselves unable to speak.  As one person put it ‘it’s not so frightening with a befriender’.

People can join a special ‘Hub’ which will advise local services on the best services and opportunities for people with aphasia.

People can also attend a conversation group which offers a chance to chat within a supported environment, or indeed arrange to be visited by a specially trained volunteer within their own home.

The concept has been tried out in other areas with great success. Carol Fletcher who was involved in Befriending in Cornwall says ‘My life would have been completely different without the Connect service. It’s just brilliant!’

Sally McVicker, Director of Services at Connect said ‘We are delighted to be providing this service for people with aphasia in Wandsworth. At the heart of the concept is people with aphasia supporting others with aphasia. We’ve shown it works in other areas and importantly it’s offering a service in line with the guidelines of the National Stroke Strategy’.

To access the service or for more information please contact the Project Coordinator, Wasi Daniju, on Tel. 0207 367 0844 / email. wasidaniju@ukconnect.org

Additional information

1. Aphasia is a communication disability usually caused by stroke, the leading cause of disability in the UK.

1. Some people cannot speak at all; some people have just a few words. Others can no longer read, write or use numbers.

1. Aphasia: This year 130,000 people in the UK will have a stroke.  One-third of those who survive will have aphasia.  Surprisingly, there are currently about 250,000 people with aphasia in the UK alone.
2. Connect: Find out more about aphasia, the work that Connect does and how to support it by visiting www.ukconnect.org
3. National Stroke Strategy http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_081062

For more information on this press release, please call

Carole Cross, 020 7367 0846 or email carolecross@ukconnect.org

www.ukconnect.org