Hillingdon PCT News January 2008

Some people think NHS Board meetings are very dull – but this one certainly was not!

Two new facilities are being launched, the Referral and Management Centre (RMC) and the Clinical Assessment and Treatment Service (CATS). These will keep people out of hospital and provide services nearer to home. Both are good news for patients.

Good news too about finances. At last the PCT predicts breaking even at end of year in March, which brings in train permission from NHS London for more money to be spent on patient care - £1.5m to meet the national target for hospital treatment to start within 18 weeks of GP referral; £500k to support patients discharged from hospital; also money for clamydia screening and extension of GP opening hours. All these will benefit patients.

Most importantly we learned that the former policy of selling off PCT land and buildings to raise cash is now dead. Current policy is to retain and use all properties for health or social care purposes. This reversal is partly due to public outcry about the earlier threats to sell PCT clinics – proving that public outrage can have impact!

Public concern about bed sores at Northwood & Pinner Community Unit, in Mount Vernon Hospital, also had impact, leading to a review published this week. This shows that only one of the 16 pressure sores arose within the Unit - all the rest went in with the patient. However the review uncovered the deplorable fact that in twelve months to April 2007, Hillingdon residents suffered a total of 50 pressure sores arising from stays in various hospitals! The PCT is now pressing the hospitals to take better care.

Also the Board showed it has a heart. It refused to extend the two year moratorium on provision of electrically powered indoor/outdoor wheelchairs. These are needed only by very incapacitated people who cannot leave their homes without a special wheelchair. There is no legal obligation, so Brent, Ealing, Harrow and Herts PCTs have already withdrawn from provision. Much to its credit Hillingdon PCT is exploring further how it might be able to help – no promises, but at least it is trying.

Policy on “Healthcare for London” is currently under public consultation. All 31 London PCTs are holding roadshows. Harrow’s was held last Saturday and was very interesting - Hillingdon’s is on Saturday 2nd February, 1pm – 7pm, in the Middlesex Suite, Civic Centre Uxbridge. Go along to learn more about polyclinics, specialist centres and possible changes in other hospitals.

Lastly, Hillingdon PCT has several staff changes - Hilary Pickles is retiring, Barbara Wood and Terry Kelly have new jobs. All these will be missed. A new post is to be created from 1st April - Director of Patient and Public Involvement.

As a footnote, Hillingdon PCT ’s response to the Third Runway proposal at Heathrow is to oppose further expansion of the airport specifically on health grounds. An interesting background paper was presented to the Board giving details.

Who could call that a dull meeting??

Joan Davis

Latest news from East & North Herts NHS Trust

This Trust is based at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage but also manages the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, in Welwyn Garden City, also Hertford Hospital and – from our perspective most importantly – the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre.

Many people find it bizarre that this Trust is responsible for the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre. It does so as a legacy from the time when there were plans to move both the Lister Hospital and our Cancer Centre to a brand new hospital in Hatfield – so it made sense for them both to be managed by the same NHS Trust.

Mercifully for us, the Hatfield project was abandoned, so our Cancer Centre remains at Mount Vernon – but it is still managed from Stevenage. This means we need to keep a watchful eye on what the East & North Herts NHS Trust is doing, so we read that Board’s papers and always try to attend the Board’s meetings held in public.

This month’s Board meeting contained no direct news about our Cancer Centre, but we noted that the Trust is close to launching its bid for Foundation Trust status. That bid will have to show that it has strong links into the communities that it serves, so it will be asking the public to apply for membership, as part of public consultation probably running from March until May. If all goes as the Trust hopes, its bid to become a Foundation Trust will be submitted by July. We will be monitoring developments closely.

Our own view put to Ben Bradshaw, Minister of Health, when we delivered our Mount Vernon Cancer Centre petition in December, is that the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre should cease to be managed by East & North Herts NHS Trust. Historically it was always a London facility, in a London hospital. It sits on London land, owned by Hillingdon Hospital, which provides it with various services. So, we call for its immediate return to London control, with Hillingdon NHS Hospital Trust our obvious choice as its manager. We will press for this change by all means open to us.

Joan

What’s new at Watford Hospital?

Finance: Yet another Finance Director has resigned. A new one, Ken Sharpe, starts on 14th January. The current forecast for March 2008 is a surplus of £2.4m, but this includes £3.7m of non-recurrent income, so the Trust is still not achieving financial balance. Amongst other causes, use of bank / agency staff / overtime, are way above national levels, but strenuous efforts are being made to reduce these costs.

Infections: The Trust had just one MRSA bacteraemia in December and 14 cases of Clostridium difficile. It is exploring the introduction of an expensive new MRSA test, which gives results in only 20 minutes, a huge improvement on other tests.

Healthcare Commission ratings: It will take a heroic effort and some luck NOT to be rated weak for quality of services again this year. Major concerns are:

Treating 98% of A&E patients in four hours – it is already too late to achieve this for the whole year·
Last minute cancellation of operations - still too high at 2.5%
Delayed discharges – these take up 7% of beds, but resolving this depends on Social Services·
MRSA – the year-end target of 18 cases was long ago breached (31 cases to end of December)
18 weeks from referral to treatment - 65% success is expected by March, but the target is 85%. Patients are now being offered private sector treatment, which is expensive! ·
Ethnic monitoring – is still below the required standards.

Plans for Watford Hospital: The Acute Admissions Unit and an enlarged Critical Care Department are due to open in October. The Extended Children’s Emergency Department follows in November. In March 2009, refurbishment of the front of house area and provision of new patient discharge facilities will be complete. All very exciting!

Foundation Trust application: The Trust expects to submit a Wave 10 application in June 2008. The EoE SHA is supporting this intention.

Associate Teaching Hospital Status: The Trust has been awarded this status, in recognition of its undergraduate teaching programme.

Joan

New Year Programme

A happy New Year to all our friends and supporters!

Our January mailing will be reaching members around the middle of the month, together with details of our next meeting on Thursday February 7th. As usual we will be meeting at 7.45pm in the Post Graduate Centre at Mount Vernon Hospital (doors open 7.30pm). Parking is close and free.

This will be a special meeting, a forum of speakers to consider the proposals of Professor Lord Ara Darzi’s for healthcare for London. Our panel will include Don Neames, Communications Director for NHS London’s Healthcare for London Project and Yi Mien Koh, Chief Executive Officer, Hillingdon Primary Care Trust – we have also invited representatives from Harrow PCT and West Herts PCT and hope they will come.

Visitors are welcome. We always hope visitors will find our meetings interesting and they will want to become members, but we encourage a couple of visits before making decisions. Members joining now will not pay again until April 2009!