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England
Three Year Programme for NHS
reform and expansion
Priorities and a new planning system for the
NHS and social services are set out in a key document published on 2 October.
Investment, Expansion and Reform sets out what health and social services will
need to achieve in key delivery areas, and introduces a new system of three
year planning and allocations. Specifically, Improvement, Expansion and Reform
sets out nine key delivery area for the NHS and social services:
- Waiting, booking and choice
- Emergency care
- Cancer
- Coronary heart disease
- Mental health
- Older people
- Life chances for vulnerable children
- Patient experience and public accountability
- Tackling health inequalities
Quality merger
Two
independent quality assurance and assessment bodies have merged to improve
standards in the NHS. The Association for Quality in Healthcare has combined
with the Institute of Quality Assurance (IQA) to become IQA Health and Social
Care Group.
The new body will encourage health and social care workers
to exchange experience and ideas about improving quality in their
services.
PMS Pilots
A fifth wave of PMS pilots has now
been announced to start April 2003 (although there are still no details
available about wave 4 yet!).
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Wolverhampton PCT
The
PCT has just issued a consultation document that proposes to:
Transfer
mental health and learning disability services from Wolverhampton Health Care
NHS Trust to Wolverhampton City PCT from 1 January 2003; Dissolve Wolverhampton
Health Care NHS Trust from 1 January 2003.
South Worcestershire
PCT
A new innovative service was started at The Bradbury Centre,
Sansome Walk, Worcester on Monday, 2 September 2002 to support people in the
south of the county who have low reduced vision. As part of the new service
patients will be referred to the Bradbury Centre by their GP and they will be
given an appointment with an Optometrist. The Optometrist will carry out an
assessment and will advise them on lighting and magnifiers which may help them.
They will also be able to arrange to see other specialist items that may help
with daily tasks, such as cooking and writing.
Witham, Braintree
and Halstead Care Trust
The last primary care group disappeared on
the 30 September with the conversion of Witham Braintree and Halstead to Care
Trust Status on the 1 October. Care trusts are a new type of independent
statutory NHS organisation responsible for all local health services and health
and social care services for older people. A small number came into being in
April but they involved just health and social services. The Witham, Braintree
and Halstead Care Trust is the first to include the local authority. Dr Paul
Zollinger-Read has been appointed as Chief Executive and Marion Williams has
been appointed as the Chair designate.
South Wiltshire Primary
Care Trust
The Three Swans Surgery in Salisbury, Wiltshire is to
receive a Quality Practice Award (QPA) from the Royal College of General
Practitioners (RCGP). The QPA rewards the high standards of quality patient
care delivered by each member of a primary care team in a UK
practice.
Mendip PCT
A continence nurse employed by
Mendip Primary Care Trust (PCT) has been given national recognition for her
outstanding contribution to supporting patients with prostate cancer. Deborah
Rigby, a Continence Advisor with Mendip PCT, was the winner in the Cancer
Nursing Award category at this years prestigious Nursing Standard Nurse 2002
Awards.
Blackwater Valley and Hart PCT
Planning
permission has been granted to build the UK’s largest primary health care
centre in a unique partnership between the NHS and Ministry of Defence,
producing one of the first polyclinics in Britain. The Aldershot Centre for
Health will be a £20 million project providing general primary care for
45,000 patients locally as well as specialist care for around 250,000 people in
Hampshire and Surrey. The centre will house around 15 GPs plus dentists and it
will also accommodate specialist clinics and consulting facilities. Building
work is expected to start in spring 2003, with final completion before the end
of 2004.
North Somerset PCT
Bournville Practice - Dr
Paul Seviour and the Primary Care Team have been short listed by Doctor
Magazine for a national award for their work on health inequalities. A final
award ceremony will take place in London on 12 November
2002.
North and South Peterborough PCTs
Are looking at
options for the long-term configuration of both PCTs. A Joint Steering Group
has been meeting various stakeholders (staff, neighbouring PCTs and Trusts,
GPs, Unions, the voluntary sector CHCs, Local Authorities and Local Medical,
Pharmaceutical and Dental Committees) to canvass their views. Recommendations
will be made to both boards but it is thought that this will not be until next
year.
Cambridge City PCT
Is keen to expand its primary
care research and development. It is working with North Peterborough PCT and
hoping to become a Research PCT.
North Peterborough
PCT
Was given approval earlier this year to become a Teaching PCT
from April 2003.
Southern Norfolk PCT
Southern Norfolk
PCT has developed a research governance implementation plan to ensure that
research is safe and ethical. It is currently involved in a research project on
diabetes with the Institute of Food Research and the Bertram Diabetes Centre.
The study involves working with patients with diabetes to explore their
feelings about their experience of managing their diet and dietetic
care.
Eastern Leicester PCT Eastern Leicester PCT has just
received a capital allocation from the DoH to help fund a one-stop centre
focused on the needs of asylum seekers. Although they already have an
assessment team of two nurses and a health care assistant, the £260,000
grant will help them to fund premises and mental health care. It will be
looking at other PCT schemes to see what has worked well.
Scotland
First professional officer
for AHPs
The first ever Professional Officer for the Allied Health
Professions (AHPs) in Scotland has been appointed. Jacqui Lunday, has worked in
a variety of roles and positions outwith her professional field while working
in Ayrshire and has also received credit in her role as manager of the area's
Occupational Therapy Service.
Extra £12m for NHS to ease
winter pressures
NHS Scotland is to receive an additional £12m
from the Executive to help prepare and deal with forthcoming winter pressures.
Each of the 15 NHS Boards will receive an allocation from the £12m which
will be used to fund additional capacity in local hospitals, including:
- The opening of extra beds
- Including critical care beds
- Additional nursing staff in hospitals and the
community
- Purchase of additional equipment; and
- Expansion of services
Wales
Appointments to Local Health
Boards Announced
The appointment of thirteen of the twenty-two Chief
Executives of the new Local Health Boards (LHBs) was announced by the Director
of NHS Wales, Ann Lloyd, on 18 September. The appointments have been made from
the first round of the process which was restricted to current health authority
or Powys NHS Trust staff. The second round of appointments is under way. The
remaining Chief Executive posts have been advertised and it is expected that
appointments will be made in late October.
Blueprint for the
future of primary care
Three new strategies which set out how key
primary care services will change, improve and modernise over the next ten
years were published by Health Minister Jane Hutt on 23 September. The
strategies for dentistry, optometry, dentistry and pharmacy set out the future
developments of the services including recruitment, information technology and
premises.
The Pharmacy Strategy sets out a 10-year vision to provide
people with fast convenient access to pharmaceutical care when they require it,
tailored to their needs and delivered to a consistently high standard. The
strategy aims to build public understanding of the role of pharmacy, access and
the support it can provide to people. It will also look at the issues of
workforce, buildings and equipment. It will enable the profession to fulfill
its potential and deliver high quality pharmaceutical services through service
redesign and effective use of resources. (you can find the full text version on
the document tab of the Wales organisation in the Health Service
Planner).
New group set up for safe and effective
prescribing
A new group has been set up to advise on different
aspects of safe and effective prescribing across Wales, Health Minister Jane
Hutt announced on the 24 September. The Welsh Medicines Partnership, which has
been established in response to a recommendation from the Prescribing Task and
Finish Group, will support the All-Wales Medicines Strategy Group in developing
and implementing a prescribing strategy for Wales.
The
partnership’s tasks will include:
- Co-ordinating and facilitating effective quality
prescribing initiatives in Wales
- Promoting the safe use of medicines, and enhancing
the effectiveness in Wales of monitoring for adverse effects
- To develop timely, independent and authoritative
advice on new drugs
- To contribute to and encourage the development of
educational programmes on quality prescribing for health professionals across
the whole of the NHS in Wales
- To facilitate the implementation of therapeutic
guidance from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence
- To support and take forward the recommendations of
the All-Wales Medicines Strategy Group
Neath/Port Talbot
LHG
The Neath Port Talbot Heart Search was launched by local
Assembly Member and Deputy Minister for Health, Dr Brian Gibbons, on Friday 20
September at Cymmer Health Centre. Heart Search is an exciting new community
initiative to tackle coronary heart disease, developed in partnership between
Neath Port Talbot Local Health Group and Bro Morgannwg NHS Trust. By raising
awareness of heart disease in the community and establishing a risk assessment
service for at risk groups, Heart Search is a major part of the Local Health
Group’s strategy to address inequalities in health within the
county.
Northern
Ireland
Health Funding Gap needs to be
addressed
Health and Social Services Minister, Bairbre de Brun,
emphasised on 18 September that the funding gap of some £100 - £200
million in the HPSS budget, identified in the Needs and Effectiveness Study,
must be addressed if the Assembly’s call for service improvements is to be
met.
The Health and Personal Social Services (Quality, Improvement
and Regulation) Bill
The Minister for Health, Social Services and
Public Safety, Bairbre de Brún, on 23 September introduced the Health
and Personal Social Services (Quality, Improvement and Regulation) Bill into
the Assembly.
The key features arising from the Bill’s proposals
include:
- A new system of clinical and social care
governance
- The HPSS to be statutorily responsible for the
quality of the services provided by their organisation
- A standards and guidelines unit to be established
within DHSSPS
- Regulations to be extended to cover a wide range of
social care services
- Establishment of the HSSRIA as a single body to
monitor
- Inspect and regulate the delivery of services
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