|
much longer than originally envisioned.
The diabetes NSF, the information for health project are two recent examples.
Now a report on the SocietyGuardian.co.uk web pages suggest the launch of more
than half of the 11 care trusts due to be set up next year has been delayed and
some may not go ahead at all. Problems ranging from ‘horrendous’
bureaucracy to creating postcode lotteries of care mean that at least seven of
the new organisations, created to integrate health and social care, will not be
going live in April 2003 as expected by the Department of Health.
England
North East Lincolnshire
PCT
A Cleethorpes based team of nurses celebrated success recently
as they were commended with a Special Achievement Award at North East
Lincolnshire PCT’s Annual General Meeting. The winners, Cleethorpes North
Primary Health Care Nursing Team, were chosen by the judges for their
innovative working across many clinical areas through a true team-based
approach resulting in excellent care being offered to
patients.
Chorley and South Ribble PCT
The PCT
Multidisciplinary continence team have picked up two prestigious national
awards during October. They first won the runners up prize at the Nursing Times
Awards Presentation evening and then the PCT Team were joint winners with the
Bolton Continence Team at Continence Foundation National Conference.
 |
Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale
PCT
Twenty-four practice nurses and three GPs have now each received
a Diploma in CHD Management for Primary Care. Special training sessions
organised by the Scarborough Whitby and Ryedale PCT, along with hours of extra
study, ensured that 90% of doctors’ surgeries in the PCT area can now
provide a member of staff with specialist knowledge of coronary heart disease
to support those patients suffering from the disease.
Bracknell
PCT
A series of initiatives are under way across Bracknell Forest
to improve access to local surgeries, reduce waiting times for specialist
assessment and improve care for people with heart disease. All are part of a
national scheme known as the Primary Care Collaborative, which now involves 10
practices in Bracknell Forest.
The Third Annual Conference of the
Northern and Yorkshire Public Health Observatory will be held between 9.30am
& 4.30pm on the 4th of December 2002 at a venue in Durham, UK.
The
aim of the conference is to provide an opportunity to share the work that the
Public Health Observatory has undertaken or commissioned during its second year
of existence and to look at how this work can best be put into action. It will
also be a chance to shape the Public Health Observatory’s agenda into the
future.
North and South Peterborough PCTs - Integrated
Teams
These two PCTs have decided to pool resources for their
Commissioning and Public Health Departments, irrespective of the outcome of the
listening exercise on their proposed merger.
 |
Kennet and North Wiltshire
PCT
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Partnership NHS trust, Kennet and
North Wiltshire PCT and West Wiltshire PCT are launching a three month
consultation on their plans for changes to a range of local mental health
services. The consultation ends on January 17 2003.
Wolverhampton
City PCT
Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust is to pilot the
first scheme in the Midlands to enable patients with long-term health problems
to become ‘experts’ in their own condition. A government initiative,
the Expert Patients Programme aims to give people the confidence, skills and
knowledge to manage their condition better and be more in control of their
lives.
Havering PCT
The has earned the ‘Positive
About Disabled People Award’ for their commitment to existing and future
employees with a disability. The ‘two ticks’ award will be presented
to the Chairman, Len Smith at the November meeting of the Trust
Board.
Westminster PCT
The National Lottery
distributor, the New Opportunities Fund has awarded a grant of £11.3m
over 18 months to Westminster PCT to provide 4-6 year olds in LEA maintained
schools in London a piece of fruit daily. The PCT will be responsible for
running the scheme across London and by December over 300,000 children over
1,700 schools will receive and apple, pear, banana or Satsuma each
day.
Lambeth PCT
The leader of a team that provides
specially tailored health care to one of the biggest refugee groups in the
country has collected the runners up prize at this year’s Nursing Times
Awards. Jane Cook is Team Leader of The Refugee Clinical Team which is hosted
by Lambeth PCT and provides a service to 32,000 asylum seekers and refugees
across Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham.
North Peterborough PCT
A small group of Practice Managers has claimed that the local
Walk-In Centre is increasing, not lightening, their GPs' workload. Nurses at
the centre can only prescribe a limited number of drugs, which means that
patients then have to contact their GPs to make appointments for the
prescription. The PCT has said that 9 out of 10 patients attending the Centre
are not referred on to a GP (the Centre treats 100 patients a day), but the
Practice Managers said that they'd prefer to see the £500,000 per year
Government grant spent on GP recruitment and more nurses at
surgeries.
Scotland
Launch of Strategy to
tackle CHD and Strokes
First Minister Jack McConnell and Health
Minister Malcolm Chisholm launched Scotland’s first Coronary Heart
Disease/Stroke Strategy, which aims to improve the prevention and treatment of
CHD and stroke for patients throughout the country, on the 3 October.
An
additional £40m from Scotland’s budget (£10m in 2003-04,
£15m in 2004-05, £15m 2005-6) has been set aside to implement the
Strategy and drive forward a target of reducing deaths from CHD and Stroke
among the under 75s by 50% between 1995 and 2010.
It will also support
work to reduce maximum patient waiting times for angiography from 12 to eight
weeks by 2004, and for surgery or angioplasty from 24 to 18 weeks by 2004. Key
features of the new Strategy will include:
- creation of local Managed Clinical Networks for CHD
and Stroke in each NHS Board area by 2004;
- creation of national databases for CHD and stroke.
This will provide detailed information about the care patients are receiving
from their GPs so that the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland can assess
this care and help drive forward quality improvements;
- a commitment to create additional specialist stroke
units to treat 5000 more patients a year, prevent 200 fewer deaths and provide
support to 300 more patients returning home after stroke. Professor Martin
Dennis, based at the Western General in Edinburgh, will oversee the development
of the Stroke elements of the strategy through a new National Advisory
Committee for Stroke.
Wales
NHS Structural Change
Programme - Progress Report - 29 October 2002
LHB Chief
Executives
Following the appointment of 13 LHB Chief Executives from
the first restricted round of appointments, the second phase of the process is
well underway. 21 candidates have been shortlisted and invited to interview.
Interviews are currently taking place and candidates are being notified of the
outcome following completion of interviews for each region. Offers have been
made for the Anglesey/Ynys Mon LHB, the Newport LHB and the Ceridigion posts
and discussions are taking place with each successful applicant regarding the
arrangements for taking up post. Further interviews will be held during the
week commencing 29th October.
Regional Directors
The
acting regional directors have now been appointed and are:
Stuart
Fletcher - acting regional director for Mid and West Wales regional office
(Chief Executive of Pembrokeshire NHS Trust)
Margaret Foster - acting
regional director for South East Wales regional office (Chief Executive of
Pontypridd and Rhondda NHS Trust)
Geoff Lang - acting regional director
for North Wales regional office (Director of Finance at North Wales Health
Authority)
Interviews for the substantive regional director posts took
place on 16 October and an announcement on the successful candidates is
expected w/c 28 October.
Public Health
Dr Cerilan Rogers
has been appointed as the Director, National Public Health Service. Adverts for
the Regional Public Health Directors were issued to health authority chief
executives week beginning 6th October. The posts will be open to all
consultants and directors employed on a substantive basis with Welsh Health
Authorities. Appointments are expected to be made in
November.
Director posts in NHSWD
- The Director of Finance post has now been
re-evaluated and falls within Pay Band 2 of the Senior Civil Service. We plan
to re-advertise during week commencing 4 November.
- Interviews have been held for the post of Director of
Performance, Quality and Regulation. An offer of appointment has been made and
an announcement will be made shortly.
- The post of Director of Primary Care is under
discussion and a decision on the way forward will be taken soon.
LHB Executive appointments: Finance
Director/Medical Director/Nursing Director posts
- These posts were advertised on 11 October with a
closing date of 25 October. These posts are restricted in the first round to
internal staff. Staff are able to claim ‘slotting-in’ entitlement to
a post if their current post matches 2/3 of the job content of one of the
advertised posts. The deadline for submitting claims for slotting-in was 17
October. If a claim is successful the member of staff will be offered the post;
if not, a shortlisting, assessment and interview process will be run to fill
all posts for which no ‘slotting-in’ has been agreed.
- Concerns were raised about the original slotting-in
process. The slotting-in panel reconvened on 28 October to reconsider
applications and received advice from appropriate senior professionals. The
panel will complete its work as soon as possible on the statutory second tier
posts. Once these decisions have been communicated, if any applicant wishes to
appeal, they will have two working days in which to do so. Appeals will be
heard by a separate appeals panel. This is in line with the HR Policies. The
process will then be repeated for the non-statutory second tier posts.
- The closing date for applications for statutory
second tier posts has now been extended from 25 October to 28 October, the
closing date for non-statutory second tier posts remains as 31 October.
Health Commission Wales: Chair and
Chief Executive
Once the accountability and job descriptions have
been agreed then it is planned to advertise these posts in November. The
Assembly's public appointment unit will handle the recruitment of the
Chair.
Northern Ireland
The
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland suspended the Northern Ireland Assembly
and the Executive with effect from midnight on 14 October, 2002. The Secretary
of State, assisted by his team of Northern Ireland Office Ministers has assumed
responsibility for the direction and control of the Northern Ireland
Departments.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Des Browne MP will
retain his current NIO responsibilities and assume responsibility for The
Department for Social Development (DSD), The Department of Health, Social
Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS), Equality, Human Rights and Community
Relations.
About the author
Health
Direction Ltd is entirely focused on collecting, processing and analysing high
quality UK-based health information for dissemination through intuitive,
browser-based products via the internet, company intranet and CD-Rom. Privately
owned and run you will find our staff friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. We
put customer satisfaction at the top of our agenda.
If you have a
requirement for NHS information, contact
Health Direction. |
