NHS News - November 2005

England - Local PCT News

Derbyshire PCTs - Out of Hours

Derby Medical Services (DMS) has negotiated a new contract, worth more than £6m, with southern Derbyshire's five PCTs to provide out-of-hours GP care for the area. In July, it claimed that patients' lives would be put at risk if it could not nearly double its £3.5m budget. The new contract is back-dated to April.

DMS has also won a 5-year £5m contract to provide a specialist medical service for detainees held in custody by the Derbyshire Police Force. An amendment to legislation means that nurses are now allowed to work in custody suites, and DMS will employ 17 nurses at four custody suites, including 12 at St Mary's Wharf in Derby. It is also hiring three more GPs. DMS is hoping to further improve services by involving agencies like Addaction. The changes have more than halved the cost of the service.

Greenwich PCT - Hospital Admissions

The new Rapid Assessment Clinic at Queen Elizabeth Hospital is a joint PCT/Council scheme which is already preventing unnecessary hospital admissions for the elderly. A special care team assesses patients within 24 hours to decide what treatment is needed

Maldon & South Chelmsford PCT - Asthma

The "Huff & Puff" project aims to help asthmatic children to control their breathing through singing classes. Children are taught simple songs, rhythms and breathing techniques, which help them not to panic when they suffer shortness of breath.

Milton Keynes PCT - Diabetes

A joint PCT/Council study shows that diabetes among adults in Milton Keynes is running at 50% above the national average. Between 8 and 10% of PCT resources is spent on dealing with diabetes, and a lot of new cases are in areas of greatest deprivation.

Nottingham City PCT - Patient Education

Eleven residents in Sneinton have been trained to educate their community about diabetes and heart disease as part of a new scheme which is aimed at members of the South Asian population. Sneinton has one of the lowest life expectancy rates in the country.

Oldham PCT - Health Inequalities

Three new initiatives have been launched in order to tackle the health inequalities recently highlighted in the PCT's Public Health Report. Public Health Report.

YOU AND YOUR COMMUNITY
is a confidential survey of 6,000 residents to find out more about their health and lifestyle. It will include 400 face-toface interviews.

UP YOUR STREET
has developed in partnership with Oldham Community Leisure and will help people with long term conditions to find out what kind of exercise they can benefit from, and where they can take part. This is the first programme of its kind in the country.

SELF CARE FOR PEOPLE
is a pilot which will encourage patients to look after their own health. Up to 30 places will be available over the next 8 months. The course consists of six 30-minute sessions, and includes a self-care directory which can be accessed via the internet.

Oxfordshire PCTs - Private Sector Involvement

Thames Valley SHA plans to invite bids from within and outside the NHS to manage the services covered by the PCTs in Oxfordshire. This could mean private sector involvement in both commissioning and providing services in the the local NHS. The Financial Times reports that several private UK overseas organisations have expressed an interest.

PCTs are preparing for changes which mean they will concentrate on strategic commissioning, and proposals for reconfiguration are being considered across England. Nick Ralph, Chief Executive of Thames Valley SHA has said that there will be no difference in terms of service impact, but notes that local PCTs have struggled to attract top staff and that the new approach could attract commissioning expertise into the county. There are conflicting reports on the view of the DoH, some believing it was surprised by the move and others that it sees Oxfordshire as a "pilot".

Suffolk East PCTs - Prescribing

The PCTs have published "Making the Best Use of our Drugs Budget" , explaining which drugs the PCTs would prefer GPs to prescribe, and which medications they would prefer them not to prescribe - the "preferred list" and the "restricted list of medicines".

Statins are one of the key groups of drugs included in the "preferred drug" list. Simvastatin is preferred over the more expensive equivalent, Atorvastatin, which is one of the most widely prescribed statins in east Suffolk. The change could save the PCTs up to £1.4m this year. The "restriced list of medicines" includes cough and cold remedies, vitamins, head lice treatments and creams for nappy rash - items which are freely available to buy over the counter.

Dr McElhinney, former PEC Chair, said: “We hope patients will understand that the changes we are suggesting will help us make the best use of our drugs budget at a time when we need to ensure that money is used as wisely as possible in the NHS".

Suffolk West PCT - Diabetic Eye Screening

The Diabetic Eye Screening Service is now using the NHS Secure Remote Access Service to send information between various scanning sites and the central server at the hospital base. Images are downloaded during the night, so normal working is unaffected.

Sutton and Merton PCT - Strokes

A new Acute Stroke Unit has opened at St Helier Hospital, and staff from both the hospital and Sutton & Merton PCT are involved in the "Stroke is a Medical Emergency" project which aims to raise awareness of the condition. The campaign explains how to recognise when someone is having a stroke, and advises a 999 call. The Stroke Unit Team, led by Stroke Consultant Dr Ajay Bhalla, is hoping to increase people's understanding of strokes, and the fact that patients should have access to therapies as early as possible to have the best chance of rehabilitation. The Stroke Team also provides a home-based service for some people when they are discharged from hospital following a stroke.

Wales - Local Health Board News

Cardiff LHB - Nurse-led Walk-In Centre

It is thought that Cardiff LHB is ready to submit plans for Wales' first NHS Walk-In Centre should they be introduced by the Welsh Assembly. There was recently a unanimous vote by AMs in favour of them but, as yet, no definite plans for their introduction

Swansea LHB - Substance Misuse

Swansea LHB has limited its funding to a local Drugs Project, SAND, to 300 people. This has led to local fears that addicts will turn to crime in order to make themselves eligible for help from the Home Office's Criminal Justice Intervention Team.

Scotland - Local NHS News

NHS Borders - Out Of Hours

Following the recent review of NHS 24, NHS Borders is looking at ways of alleviating some of the local problems which were highlighted. The busiest times for NHS 24 (the first point of contact) is first thing in the morning and holidays, so more local telephone nurse triage points are to be established at these times. It is hoped that local knowledge will improve the speed at which medical care can be given if required. The hand-over of patients from NHS 24 to the Borders Emergency Care Service is to be improved by establishing a local contact for callers who should then receive face-to-face care sooner - this has been a particular problem in rural areas like the Borders where both patients and healthcare professionals face longer than average journeys. NHS Borders is also looking at plans to provide Saturday morning surgeries.

NHS Borders / NHS Lothian - New Community Health Partnerships

Three new CHPs have been established. Borders CHP combines Borders and Borders West LHCCs. North Edinburgh CHP comrises North East and North West Edinburgh LHCCs. South Edinburgh CHP comprises South East, South West and South Central Edinburgh LHCCs.

Northern Ireland - Local NHS News

Down / Lisburn LHSCGs - CHD Prescribing Support

Prescribing Advisers in Down and Lisburn LHSCGs recently arranged for a local expert in cardiovascular medicine to give a non-biased, evidence-based summary of the recent relevant drug trials, in order to keep local GPs informed of current developments.

Western HSSB - Mental Health

New strategies are planned to reduce the levels of tranquiliser addiction across the area. The Foyle Tranquilizer Initiative (FTI) and the Sperrin Lakeland Area Tranquiliser Initiative (SpLAT) are campaigns which aim to promote the safe use of prescribed tranquilisers. Doctors in the HSSB area issued 136,112 prescriptions for benzodiazepines between March 2004 and February 2005, a rise of more than 5,000 prescriptions on the previous year. Government guidelines recommend no one should be using benzodiazepines for more than three months at a time, but many patients locally have been taking the sedatives for the past 20 to 30 years. This most recently documented rise came despite the fact that re-trained GPs have written to patients offering counselling programmes to help them off the drugs. counselling programmes to help them off the drugs.

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