“Hospital discharge was chosen as one of Wandsworth LINK’s four priorities. The Enter and View Team wished to discover more about how patients and their carers experience the discharge process. We intend later to follow the patients into the community to assess the quality and appropriateness of their care and support at home which will help to inform our opinions about the Transformation Agenda-another of the LINk’s priorities. We planned a visit to St George’s Hospital to seek the opinions and views of the patients who were being discharged and their carers.

We wanted to find out how the policies work on the ground on the day of discharge. Particularly seeking to establish whether the discharge was safe and how the patients and their carers felt about the process….”

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

• Dental Mystery Shopping
• St. Georges Hospital A&E  GP referrals
• Minor Oral Surgery update
• Out of hours Services

To read his report please click here March 2010 Lay Member PEC Feedback

Your comments on these and other lay issues in connection with PEC discussions are very welcome and Andrew will feed them into the next PEC meeting or other appropriate channel at the PCT.  

GP SURGERIES CONSULTATION

Here is an excerpt from the press release, which also quotes local GP Dr Seth Rankin:

Patients will have the chance to choose the best GP practice for them under new plans in a consultation published today by Health Secretary Andy Burnham.

At present, GPs operate within fixed geographical boundaries that can be restrictive and severely reduce patients’ choice of the practice they register with, especially for those patients living in poorer areas. 

The majority of patients are happy with their current GP practice but a significant minority would like to change their GP.

For many patients it is important to be registered with a local GP so their GP can visit them at home and help co-ordinate care with local health professionals. Others want to register with a practice closer to where they work, or one closer to home, open longer or offers more services. Other patients have said they’d like to be able to stay registered with their current practice when they move house.

The consultation is seeking views on a wide range of proposals, in particular around the issues involved in arranging home visits, co-ordination of community based services, safeguarding access for local residents, and access to hospital and specialist treatment.

This is a very important development with a number of issues attached to it about patient choice, continuity of care and how primary care practices are funded.  

You can read the full story here www.dh.gov.uk/en/News/Recentstories/DH_113502 and also access the consultation at the foot of the page.  

The assumption is that the changes will be implemented from October 2010.

What do you think about these proposals? LINk is trying to gather the thoughts and opinions of local Wandsworth Residents which they will then feed into the consultation. Please get in touch with us or write your comments at the bottom of this page.

 Wandsworth LINk has now sent Wandsworth Council its reasons for referring the recent NHS Wandsworth decision to create a split-site polyclinic hub for Battersea, to its health Overview and Scrutiny Committee for further analysis. 

Wandsworth LINk considers the new plan to be a substantial change from the previous one and should therefore be exposed to public consultation.  The split-site service will inconvenience patients, sometimes requiring attendances at both sites to deal with a single problem.  The availability of capital finance is being given as the recent for the change of plan.  There was a solution for this in 2008.  Is that solution not available today?  For the full reasons for referral please see attached note.  The Committee will be held in public at Wandsworth Town Hall at 7.30 pm on Tuesday 16th February.

Why are Wandsworth LINk referring the NHS Wandsworth Polyclinic decision to the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee

To read LINk’s comments click here Informed Choice

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.

Wandsworth’s Carers’ Strategy

Back in July we posted an item telling you about the new Carers’ Strategy consultation being undertaken in Wandsworth.

There are some 19,000 carers living in Wandsworth and the new Carers’ Strategy will cover how the statutory and voluntary agencies will help carers over the next 5 years.

At that time, Wandsworth LINk welcomed the initiative of the Adults Services Department to begin a dialogue about how to extend involvement and engagement of service users and is keen to work in partnership to implement the proposals. We fully support of the values and philosophy underpinning the Adult Services User Engagement and Involvement Strategy.

Our Response

We have now published our response to the Strategy and you can see it in the Resources Section of the website as the LINk Response to Consultation on Wandsworth’s Carers’ Strategy (PDF). Our response is based on the content of the Strategy and Action Plan documentation, the views expressed by 25 people who attended the two consultation meetings and anecdotal evidence from carers who have approached LINk. Thank you to all those who contributed.

LINk’s focus is on services for adults so comments are not offered about services to children and young people.

LINk recommendations for priority action

Ownership of the Strategy

The strategy is clearly a collaborative project across health and social care agencies. It would be further strengthened if ownership could be extended across all health and care commissioners and providers within the Borough.

Carer Participation

It is appreciated that this strategy was developed with the participation and involvement of carers looking after people from different user groups as well as young carers. Implementation will be strengthened with the development of specific good practice guidelines for involving an even wider range of carers, especially reaching those who need support with financial and practical problems of finding alternative care for their service user in order to participate.

From discussions about the consultation process, it emerged that Wandsworth does not currently have a data base of all carers who have received a carers’ assessment not is there a way of identifying carers via records on service users. It seems that more work could be done to identify and communicate with carers who may be unaware of what is available, even before work is done to identify carers not currently involved with services.

Information

Establish and publicize a multi-lingual help line specifically dedicated to supporting carers with an option for carers to be referred for an individual discussion.

Quality personalized care

Adopt and implement a policy whereby carers are always consulted and listened to

1. in the assessment and review of individual care
2. where services are planned to be changed or closed

Recognition and Respect

Provide carer-led training and involvement in recruitment for relevant professionals to ensure that they fully understand the vital role played by carers as partners in care and their entitlement to be involved and to have a carers’ assessment.

Good Communication

Establish a data base of carers in Wandsworth, inform them of their rights and entitlements and consult them about developments that may affect their lives.

Quality Breaks

Extend and publicize readily accessible affordable high quality respite care, including emergency respite and respite using the Crossroads model.

Health and well being

Extend and publicize counselling, support group and recreational services for carers, including provision at evenings and weekends taking into account the need of carers to find/pay for alternative care for their service user.

Economic well being

Ensure that the Carers’ Help Line can provide relevant benefits advice, debt counseling and information about employment entitlements.

NHS Wandsworth is running some diabetes focus groups in September/ October to give patients an opportunity to have their say about the diabetes services and to inform and influence future service planning.  Come along and be asked about:

1) Access:

Did you get the right information? How was the service delivered?  What was your experience of the GP service and of hospitals? Could you get to the clinic easily?

2) Attitudes of the Staff you meet – doctors, nurses, reception staff

How would you describe their dealings with staff? What effect did your relations with staff affect the service you got and what suggestions do you have to improve things?

3) Pathway of Care:

What does this mean to you? Has this approach to care improved things for you?

Anything else on your mind? Bring it up at one of the meetings. Check with the group organiser that your views will be treated in confidence and not associated with you or any other individuals in any report.

The Meetings

They will be about 2 hours long and about 6-8 people are expected at each. Snacks will be provided and travel expenses will be reimbursed.

The dates, places and times are:

1. 15th September – Balham Park Surgery – 2-4pm

2. 16th September – Queen Mary’s Hospital in the Richmond Room – 1-3pm

3. 21st September – Balham Park Surgery – 10am to 12noon

4. 22nd September – Doddington Health Centre – 10am to 12noon

5. 24th September – Doddington Health Centre – 10am to 12noon

6. 9th October – Queen Mary’s Hospital in the Barnes Room – 10.30am to 12.30pm

Sign up by contacting Sue Fleming on 020 8812 7946

The LINk’s response comments on the consultation process itself and responds to the issues raised in the consultation document.  Download the response from Wandsworth LINk to the Consultations with Wandsworth NHS on Improving Health (Word 50Kb).