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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!

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

These headlines are for rapid briefing purposes about the lay/user issues arising in the meeting. It is not a full report from the meeting.

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

The contents of this briefing note are for information only and are solely the responsibility of Andrew Craig, PEC Lay Member, including errors and omissions. They do not necessarily represent the views of the PEC or NHS Wandsworth.

Items for Discussion

Performance Area Presentation – Screening

Breast screening: The target is for 70% of women aged 53-70 to have received screening for the early detection of breast cancer over the last three years. In 2010/11, the target will be extended to include all women aged 47–73. 

Local performance was consistently underachieving (63%) compared to other sector PCTs (London average 65.1%; Islington 66% highest).  Issues of  venues, sites and times and list cleaning were being pursued to improve this.  Language issues are sighificant factor. A pictorial version of the invitation was being trialled.

There is significant patient opt out and also professional doubt about effectiveness in early detection and intervention for breast cancer.  This could be an example of chasing targets not in the patients’ best interest and spurious in terms of improving the health of the population.   Not part of current GP contract, so GPs less likely to be asked about it than cervical screening.  And patient information usually not transferred to EMIS patient records. 

General view that changes won’t take local performance up to 70%.  Breast screens done privately  (probably about 1%) not counted for the target as not quality assured. 

Cervical screening:  The 2010/11 target is for 80% of women aged 25-49 to have had a technically adequate smear within the last 3.5 years and 80% of women aged 50-64 to have had a technically adequate smear within the last 5 years.

Local performance (68% and 74.5% for the respective groups) improved by 2% this year, but consistent underperformance issues are the same as for breast screening.  Data reconciliation has revealed large inconsistencies in patient lists ( reflecting our highly mobile and diverse population).

For both types of screening, PEC agreed that there must be much more engagement with the target community to find out what kind of service they would use and where it should be offered.

My conclusion from this is that the NHS is underperforming because it is trying to promote uptake of a product that many customers don’t recognise as something they need and should want. Women called for screening are not “patients” and are unlikely to respond to top down services that take no account of language, culture, convenience and other consumer factors.  We do not know what kind of service women would like to have and until there is reliable user-led intelligence, it will not be possible to commission something more appropriate.  Tinkering with the existing model is futile and wastes resources.  Getting this right presents a big opportunity for the NHS, Wandsworth Council  and Third Sector bodies to work together in an engagement exercise with a public health objective. This fits the new White Paper’s approach to public health. It is astonishing that data collection at practice level is still so fragmented.  

Naitonal GP Survey – Practice Nurses

Wandsworth’s results for patient satisfaction with access to and services from nurses in general practice are getting worse.  PEC agreed the final version of a practice nurse developmehnt strategy aimed at improving the situation. This includes better performance measures than the national survey questions. Performance data is not understood in practices and by individual nurses in the practices and this must be remedied.   

Nursing outside of hospital remains disjointed and nurses employed by GPs are professionally isolated.  The new practice nurse strategy will help, but it cannot overcome a problem whose cause is inherent in the way these practitioners are employed by GPs as private businesses.  We need a primary care nursing service that is not just confined to GP practices.  In my view the practice nurse task model is a dinosaur and impedes innovation. An alterantive is to employ primary care nursing staff through Healthcare Federations as legal entities and not through individual practices and arrange professional development and leadership across Wandsworth. Another option to consider is the  “chambers” approach where nurse employees own their own business as a mutual society and contract services to practices (and to GP commissioning consortia in future).  That would require a solution to the NHS pensions issue but there are strong signals from government that this model would be supported.  

Quarter Four GP Survey Results

PEC discussed the access to primary care results.  London and all South West London sector PCTs are underperforming in most areas.  Wandsworth is poor in practice nurse and  out of hours areas.   Government has announced that the specific target of seeing a GP within 48 hours will be abolished.

Because of the importance of providing information to patients to enable informed choices, PEC agreed that this information should be put on the PCT website in a clear and accessible way relating to individual practices.  This would enable people to choose a GP practice or switch from a poorly performing one.  PEC also agreed that the PCT should ask patients if this was the kind of data they wanted, what will they do with it,  whether it helped them make choices and whether they would recommend others to use it.    

 Implementing Coalition Government Policy

The Chief Executive provided information based on a recent briefing with NHS London and London PCT CEOs.  The following issues were highlighted:

The mismatch between having to achieve management savings quickly compared to the requirements of the legislative timetable to have changes completed by 2013 is a serious complicating factor and will make the PCT’s job more difficult in managing change and retaining its skilled staff to enable the transition to GP commissioning and closer work with the Council.

Commissioning consortia will be statutory organisations with an accountable officer (CEO) and geographical responsibilities.  Consortia will be in shadow form from from 4/11.  No mention of Boards in the accountable structure (consortia CEOs will be accountable upwards to the NHS CEO in England).  

Re-negotiation of GP contact will be simultaneous with setting up of consortia.  Providers will take most assets with them required for provision of services (et Queen Mary’s Hospital, health centres);  only assets requried for commissioning would remain with GP consortia.

The NHS Commissioning Board from 2012 will commission all primary care and maternity care.  GP consortia will not commission GP (primary)  care, for obvious conflict of interest reasons, but would take an interest in quality and effectiveness (how this would happen has not yet been specified).  Some SHAs will turn into offices of the NHS Board by 2012.  

Public health,  wellbeing and health improvement – will essentially transfer to local government  as a core cabinet level responsibility to be integrated with social care. In London this could mean the Mayor taking control of them.  Directors of Public Health would be employed by Councils not the NHS.  Overview and scrutiny arrangements will change.  London would have a public health focus.

Healthwatch nationally and locally would relate to the Care Quality Commission and absorb the LINk.  Local Healthwatch would be Council funded and accountable.   See the diagram at the end of this report.

Monitor would become the universal healthcare economic regulator.  All NHS Trusts would have to become Foundation Trusts or merge with viable FTs. Private patient income cap will be removed.  Social enterprise and employee ownership models are being heavily promoted and incentivised.

Independent health care sector will play a role mainly in market testing rather than mainlyin service provision.  

Key documents for the White Paper Liberating the NHS launched on 12/7are grouped on the Department of Health website and are essential reading www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/LiberatingtheNHS/index.htm 

 David Nicholson, CEO of NHS England, letter to CEOs of NHS organisations 13 July outlining stages and pace of transition www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_117406.pdf  stresses  four key change principles: subsidiarity, co-production,    clinical ownership and leadership, and system alignment.  The message is the need to understand the NHS as a system of services linked by common principles of access, equity and quality, not a monolithic organisation of buildings and 1m+ employees.

NHS England Governance Model in White Paper Liberating the NHS July 2010

 Next Meeting of the NHS Wandsworth Board: Wednesday 28^th July 2010 in the Richmond Room, Queen Mary’s Hospital, commencing at 09h30.

 Next Meeting of the PEC: 09h30 on Tuesday, 14^th September 2010.