June meeting of the Community Voice

Our June meeting will be at 7.45pm on Thursday 4th June in the

Post Graduate Centre Mount Vernon Hospital.

Our guest speaker will be Barbara Gill, Project Director Mount Vernon Cancer Services Development Project, speaking on “Making progress on cancer services” – the way ahead for the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre

Visitors are welcome as guests

A whirlwind of change in community health services!

Maria O’Brien was guest speaker at the Community Voice May meeting.

She covered so much ground that we felt a whirlwind had hit us! Her enthusiasm and dedication to patient services was transparent and exciting. Summarising is an impossible task.

Traditionally PCTs have commissioned services – which means planning and purchasing – and they have also provided community health services. NHS national policy now obliges PCTs to separate theses two roles. The former PCT provider services are now called Hillingdon Community Health which, from 1st April 2009, has been designated as an autonomous provider by NHS London. Maria O’Brien is its Managing Director.

However, Hillingdon Community Health is still responsible to the PCT Board although it is now an independent organisation with its own £30.5 million budget from Hillingdon PCT. It employs 550 staff to provide 32 different health services in patients’ homes and 19 clinics.

Its Adult Services include district and specialist nursing, podiatry, specialist dentistry, community matrons, various therapies, infection control, wheelchairs, rapid response teams, safeguarding adults service. It is responsible for two GP practices in the south of Hillingdon and also for the 22 bed in-patient facility at Mount Vernon in the Northwood and Pinner Community Unit.

Its Children’s & Young People Services include health visiting, child development, community paediatricians and nursing, various therapies, school nursing, safeguarding children, looking after children and also family planning and sexual health.

Various options are open to this new organisation. It could remain as it is or become a Community Foundation Trust. It could integrate with an acute NHS Trust or a Foundation Trust, or the Local Authority. It could become a Social Enterprise, outside the NHS, or merge with another PCT Provider. It could even become a private enterprise.

In 2009-10 it aims to focus on expanding and improving clinical services for local users, but it will also consult with staff, patients and the public, the local authority, hospital, and GPs before making recommendations about its future framework in Autumn 2009.

Within the next two months it hopes to achieve a wait of no more than two weeks for physiotherapy. It also plans to develop a “home” intravenous antibiotic service, expansion of the Rapid Response Service, a new wound care service, more community matrons to support patients with long term conditions and expansion of other services including diabetes, rehabilitation, immunisation and children’s services.

Hillingdon PCT has been very supportive, more so than many PCTs, with investment in community services and an extra 110 front-line posts in Hillingdon.
Questions came thick and fast. All were answered. It was a highly informative and interesting experience for the audience.

Many thanks to Maria O’Brien!

Joan

North West London Hospitals, April 2009

Principal items only. Altogether a very satisfactory report of what has been happening.

1. CEO report A variety of interesting items reported here. The trust has received full registration by the (new) Care Quality Commission (CQC), which came into being on 1 April. Like many other hospitals NWLH has a shortage of midwives. In London there are 400 vacancies for midwives but there are only 200 being trained. Trouble ahead!

2. Annual Performance This was very good in many areas. The A&E target of 98% patients being treated within 4 hours was reached, for the whole year, in spite of an increase in the number of patients being treated. The MRSA target of 28 cases was met – ‘target’ is the wrong word, it’s actually a permitted maximum. Regarding C.Diff there was a 40% improvement over the last year’s figures. The ‘18 week’ target of 90% (for referral of a patient for tests, diagnosis and treatment) was met comfortably, with 98% and this earned an efficiency bonus of £700K.

3. Swine flu The Trust is well prepared, one of the ‘London referrals’ had been to NPH. Staff in infection units are being advised to have vaccinations. Alert precautions will remain in force for a long (unspecified) time.

4. Cervical screening There is a 14 day target for screening. Numbers have recently increased greatly, referred to as the ‘Jade Goody’ effect.

5. Mid-Staffordshire check list Trusts have been asked to compare their performance against the recent report of multiple failures at the Mid-Staffordshire Trust. Our trust has a clean bill of health in this comparison.

6. Finance With some heroic work on non-recurrent items, the trust finished the financial year with a positive balance of about £170K. An adverse balance is expected for next year.

Paul

What's new in April in Hillingdon Hospital?

Resignation of the Chairman

The Chairman, Tony Valentine, has announced his resignation, effective on the 1st July.

Accident and Emergency Department activity

Demand has recently escalated with an extra 35 to 40 patients per day in A&E, mostly between 8pm and midnight. So Hillingdon Hospital failed to meet the national target of treating all A&E patients within four hours of arrival. In April its rate dropped to 96.4%, bottom for London and in the lowest quartile nationally. So, the Trust has been summoned to discuss its action plan with NHS London. Additional staff are being introduced on evening shifts.

Finance
2008-09 was very challenging, with the combined pressures of achieving the 18 week target, very high energy and utility price rises, and a large increase in agency staff use. Never-the-less, the Trust delivered its best performance on national and local targets and ended the year with efficiency savings of £4.7m. The highest earning departments were Obstetrics and Trauma / Orthopaedics, followed by Accident & Emergency.

Flu Pandemic
In a recent audit of preparations for a possible ‘flu pandemic the hospital scored an assessment of 98%. This was a national audit, in which the London average was a score of 82%, so The Hillingdon Hospital was considered well prepared

MRSA Screening
It is hoped that all elective patients will be screened for MRSA by the end of April or early May. All inpatients after two weeks are now re-screened every 14 days to assist in the identification of high-risk patients.

Pressure ulcers
A successful pressure ulcer awareness week was launched in March to raise awareness among both staff and the public.

Joan Davis

A walk-in GP centre is coming to Hayes!

Hillingdon PCT has announced that from autumn 2009 there will be a walk-in medical service in the town centre of Hayes. This free NHS service will be open 8am - 8 pm with a GP available 365 days of the year.

This service will be provided by Bondcare Medical Services Ltd, an independent provider of healthcare services across the UK.

Joan

NHS Harrow, 14 April 2009

NHS Harrow is the new working name of Harrow PCT. Apparently several PCTs have adopted this style, as it is clearer to the public what the function of the organisation actually is.

This report covers main items of the recent Board meeting, held on 14 April

1. Performance All seems quite satisfactory. The (98% in less than) 4 hour A&E target (at Northwick Park, of course) has been achieved for the whole year, in fact NPH is the only London hospital that has gone from ‘red’ to ‘green’ within a single year. Regarding immunization there are variations in the GP records and the PCT’s own counting.

2. Finance and Budgets The overall closing balance will be very near the target of a surplus of £1.7 M, there may be some changes because the Pharmacy contract has been changed nationally. No major changes are expected for the coming year.

3. Sustainable Health Care This was presented by the Director of Public Health. It is concerned with saving carbon in the borough, everyone agrees it’s a good thing to do but no one knows what the costs will be. One suggestion that met with general approval was the suggestion that people should write shorter reports.

4. Primary Medical Services in East Harrow This was about the provision of new services, to replace a Health Centre that was closed about 2 years ago and some GP practices that have closed. Three alternative proposals were presented, each involving the Community Health Centre in Belmont, supported by a 2 GP led Health Centres. A local consultation is to be held shortly.

Paul

Voluntary Services in Hillingdon & Mount Vernon

Voluntary Services for both Hillingdon and Mount Vernon Hospitals have proved to be invaluable. There are the volunteer drivers who transport patients to and from the hospitals in their own car; others work in the charity shops raising money for the hospitals. In the past the Comforts Fund has provided funding for many projects and equipment in both hospitals. Another aspect of their work is escorting patients to and from reception to the correct clinic, doctor or ward. They certainly are an asset.

YOUR HOSPITAL NEEDS YOU - BECOME A VOLUNTEER

New Watford and Three Rivers Health and Social Care Group

On 7^th April, in Watford Town Hall, a new health and social care group was launched by Hertfordshire Local Involvement Network. That LINk covers a very wide area and it is therefore setting up a number of sub-groups, of which this one, covering Watford and Three Rivers, is among the first.

The event was a great success. Over forty people attended, including representatives from Herts. County Council, Watford Council, Three Rivers Council, West Herts PCT, West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust and various voluntary organisations. Donald Edwards, our Publicity Officer, and I represented The Community Voice but it was good to see a number of other members present too.

As our two organisations share much common ground, we were allowed to display Community Voice publicity boards, to show our own range of interests. I was also invited to speak briefly to welcome the new organisation on behalf of our members. Increasing public awareness and input into local health and social care services will benefit us all. We look forward to working closely with the new group and are confident that this will be to our mutual advantage.

Joan

Next Meeting, on Thursday 7th May 2009

At this meeting, Maria O’Brien, Interim Managing Director of Provider Services, Hillingdon PCT, will be our guest speaker, speaking on: “The whirlwind of change - in local NHS services”.
As always we will meet at 7.45pm in the Post Graduate Centre at Mount Vernon Hospital. Visitors are welcome.

Do you know about all the changes that are taking place? If not, come and find out!

Joan

Our April Meeting

David McVittie is always a popular guest speaker. He has charm and is frank. As Hillingdon Hospital’s Chief Executive, his news is up to date and correct. So, he enchants his audience – and our April meeting was a great success.

Firstly, his Board intends to rebuild Hillingdon Hospital on its present site. It looked at all options and this was the best. In an ideal world the RAF site at Uxbridge might be first choice, but in practice it is not a front runner.

No London acute hospital has been successful so far in achieving foundation trust status in under three years, so his Trust is not alone in its disappointment that its application is on hold. It remains confident of ultimate success. It already has over 5,500 Foundation Trust members and has recently held elections for Governors.

He spoke about the current trauma and stroke public consultation. His hospital receives less than one major trauma case per week, so it cannot not match the criteria for a major trauma centre, but the proposals will allow it to continue, as now, to deal with the majority of local trauma cases.

However, his hospital already provides a hyper-acute-stroke service for most of the day, so it is disappointed by the consultation proposals, which would send all local stroke patients to Northwick Park Hospital for the first 72 hours of a stroke attack. His hospital would then become a local stroke unit, dealing only with transient ischaemic attacks and rehabilitation.

His Trust’s vision for Mount Vernon is unchanged. The new car park outside the Mount Vernon Treatment Centre will open in June. Various old buildings must be demolished. New cancer wards are needed, also new staff accommodation and new wards for elderly care. A joint venture with the private Bishopswood Hospital could lead to shared accommodation for endoscopy services.

The Trust is proud of its two new facilities. Bevan Ward in Hillingon Hospital provides en-suite single rooms. The Mount Vernon Treatment Centre provides top class elective care.

The Trust has also done well in meeting national targets, in achieving a small financial surplus, in the outcome of staff surveys, in its thriving Patients in Partnership programme and in introducing its consultant-led Emergency Admissions Unit which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The speaker stayed late to answer questions and to hear audience comments. As always our meeting provided an opportunity for members to relate directly to the speaker - interchanging views and information, to mutual advantage, we hope.

Joan