Archive for August, 2010

Press Release from St George’s

Sale of Bolingbroke will improve care for Wandsworth residents

Date of issue: Tuesday 24th August 2010

St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust is moving ahead with plans to sell the site of the former Bolingbroke Hospital within the current 2010/11 financial year. The sale is expected to raise millions of pounds which will be invested in improving healthcare for the 1.3 million people that St George’s serves across Wandsworth and southwest London.

The trust has identified key priorities for future investment following the Bolingbroke sale. These include developing a new urgent care centre on the main St George’s Hospital site in Tooting in partnership with NHS Wandsworth, the local primary care trust, and GPs and also expanding the resuscitation department where major trauma patients are admitted.

The trust has a responsibility to raise as much money as possible from the sale of the site and has been encouraged by the interest already shown by a range of organisations and developers. This includes Wandsworth Borough Council who are in discussions with the trust about acquiring the site for a new school development.

David Astley, St George’s chief executive said: “St George’s is committed to providing excellent healthcare services for its patients in modern surroundings. It is therefore important that the Bolingbroke site is sold quickly and for the best price possible so that we can invest the money raised in improving our services.”

Both St George’s and NHS Wandsworth are keen to fulfil the commitment made to local residents that space will be available in any new Bolingbroke development for future healthcare services. NHS Wandsworth and local GPs are already working together on plans to include GP and community services on the Bolingbroke site once it has been sold.

Dr David Finch, Battersea GP and Medical Director of NHS Wandsworth said: “We are working closely with St George’s to make sure that any planning application for the Bolingbroke includes space for NHS services. In the future we would like to see a facility that provides GP and community services which fits in with the needs of local people in this area.”

-Ends-

Notes to editors

1. For more information, please contact the Communications Unit on 020 8725 5151 or email communications@stgeorges.nhs.uk.Outside working hours, please page us by calling 0844 822 2888, leaving a short message and contact details for pager SG548

We would like to invite you to a meeting of the Wandsworth Mobility Forum on Thursday 30th September 2010, from 2 to 4pm. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available from 1.30pm, so please arrive early.

The Mobility Forum provides an opportunity for elderly and disabled people to comment about transport in Wandsworth and to hear from transport operators and the Council about what is being done to make travelling more accessible.

The agenda for the Forum is still being prepared, but it is likely to include the Council’s Local Implementation Plan (LIP), improvements to railway stations, particularly Clapham Junction, Wandsworth Town and Earlsfield, an update on bus and Dial-a-Ride issues, and the results of a borough wide survey about the transport experiences of people with learning disabilities in Wandsworth.

The meeting is being held at the Wandsworth Civic Suite, next to the Town Hall building. The Civic Suite can be accessed via a ramp from Wandsworth High Street. From the entrance there is a lift to the first floor where the meeting will be held. Limited parking may be available, but you will need to phone us first to check.

Please contact John Slaughter (Senior Transport Planner) on 020 8871 6293 if you would like to attend the Forum, have any special needs (including dietary), and/or any questions about the Forum. If you wish to raise a question at the meeting, it would be useful to let us know by 16th September, so that we can pass it on to those best able to answer it.

Minutes of the last Forum on 10th February will be available shortly: please contact us if you would like a copy. Alternatively, they will be viewable on the website of Wandsworth Access Association, http://www.wandsworthaccess.org.uk/12.html

If you require transport to the venue please contact Wandsworth Community Transport on 020 8675 7460 by 24 September 2010.

The South London Cardiac and Stroke Network is setting up a new patient advisory panel to look at the impact of the new oral anticoagulants that will soon be released in the UK.

Please click here for futher information regarding this group. People may also sign up to receive updates on this area and the group’s progress.

We are planning the first meeting for early September so will be recruiting up until the end of August.

Please feel free to contact us with any enquiries on 0208 812 5966, or visit www.slcsn.nhs.uk

LINk LONDON – NALM LINks

Thursday, August 26th 5.30-7.30pm

Conference Room, LAS Headquarters, 220 Waterloo Road, SE1

________________________________________

STOP PRESS:

Stephen Webb, Director of Communication, NHS London

‘Abolition of NHS London and its consequence for the healthcare of people in London’

Agenda:

1) Healthwatch and LINks

• Response to the White Papers

• 100 Experts Speak

• Funding of LINk/Healthwatch

• Role of the CQC

2) Abolition of NHS London and its consequence for the healthcare of people in London’

3) LINk budget cuts

4) Out of Hours (OOH) and emergency services in London

• Camidoc OOH

• Commissioning the London Ambulance Services and other pan London services

5) Patients Safety Alerts – The AvMA Report

Nearest Tube and Rail: Waterloo

Buses1,4,26,59,77,68,139,168,171,172,176,188,507,243,341,381,507,21

Wandsworth LINk has been approached by a researcher and a community development practitioner researching aspects of community empowerment and participation. She is in the process of writing a report about Local Involvement Networks in London. She is hoping to collect feedback from our members and she would be extremely grateful if you could complete thisLINk members survey . Your views and experiences are very important and would be very much appreciated.  

If you would be interested in completing the survey please submit it directly to Wendy Phillips electronically (wphillips@live.co.uk).

Thank you for your input!

The deadline for completion is Friday 27^th August 2010.

The timeliness, safety and dignity of patients’ discharge from hospital is one of Wandsworth LINk’s main priority projects for 2009/2010. We chose to focus on this because we had heard from many LINk members who told us about problems they had experienced when they were discharged from hospital.

Wandsworth LINk members have been working with patients, care service users and carers to identify the ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ to hospital discharge over the last year. We have also worked with staff from Health and care providers serving the borough including: St George’s, Kingston, Chelsea and Westminster, Springfield, and Barnes hospitals, Community Nursing Services and Adult Care Social Services.

We would like to invite you to answer the following questions relating to your hospital discharge. Was it a good experience or not?  When we have gathered a cross section of views, we will write up our findings, publish them and share them with Health and Care agencies within Wandsworth. We hope that this will be used to improve our local services.

Please download and fill in the HOSPITAL DISCHARGE QUESTIONNAIRE and email it back to freechoice@wandcareall.org.uk

Alternatively you can post the questionnaire back to us at  Wandsworth LINk, Wandsworth Care Alliance, Trident Business Centre, 89 Bickersteth Road, Tooting, SW17 9SH

New publication informs patients and families what standards to expect from the regulation of their NHS hospital

Following the introduction of a new law, all NHS hospitals in England must now be licensed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). To be licensed hospitals must show that they are meeting new essential standards of quality and safety. CQC continuously monitors them to make sure standards are kept or improvement action is taken. Now CQC has published a leaflet which informs patients, their carers and families, what they can expect from the essential standards. The leaflet also explains how important it is that patients or their carers tell the regulator about their experiences, both good and bad, to help CQC make the right decisions.  Called ‘What standards to expect from the regulation of your NHS hospital’ the leaflet can be read or downloaded from the CQC website.

At the same time the CQC website publishes an up-to-date directory of all licensed NHS hospitals. You can now look up the current status of any NHS hospital trust in England.

The licensing of NHS hospitals is just the first step in a programme which will see new essential standards of quality and safety gradually rolled out across all health and adult social care services in England. In October this year all adult social care services must be licensed by CQC and providers must demonstrate they are meeting essential standards of quality and safety; so too must all providers of independent healthcare.  You can find out more about the programme and how it affects the care you and your family receives by visiting CQC’s website at www.cqc.org.uk.  Or you can contact the Care Quality Commission on 03000 616161.

Don’t forget to have a look at our most recent Newsletter here! 

And a reminder that through our website you can also access Wandsworth LINk’s 2010 Annual Report.

From the Wandsworth LINk team.

On the 19th July 2010 Wandsworth LINk held an open meeting with Carol Barton from Wandsworth Adult Social Services. It was a lively discussion, with many people asking questions. A transcript of this session is now available,  so please do have a read here!