NHS News - November 2004.
In partnership with Health Direction

NHS Walk-in Centres

The following new NHS Walk-in Centres are now open:

Royal Surrey County NHS Walk-in Centre - managed by Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Trust
Colchester NHS Walk-in Centre - managed by Colchester PCT
Teddington NHS Walk-in Centre - managed by Richmond and Twickenham PCT
Lewisham NHS Walk-in Centre - managed by Lewisham PCT
Highgate NHS Walk-in Centre - managed by Whittington Hospital NHS Trust
Crawley NHS Walk-in Centre - managed by Crawley PCT
Luton NHS Walk-in Centre - managed by Luton PCT
Oldham NHS Walk-in Centre - managed by Oldham PCT
Barking and Dagenham NHS Walk-in Centre - managed by Barking and Dagenham PCT


PCT Mergers

During the last year a number PCTs have combined with their neighbours to share a Chief Executive, a management board or even mergers of functions at lower management levels. A number of PCTs now share Chief Executives. Some mergers have been initiated by the SHA (for example Hampshire and Isle of Wight SHA) or because one of the PCTs was struggling (Chelmsford PCT - a zero star rated PCT in 2003/4 now sharing a Chief Executive with Witham, Braintree and Halstead Care Trust) or because of a long history of collaborative working (North and South Peterborough PCTs.)

PCTs that are now working together include:

Chelmsford PCT
Witham, Braintree and Halstead Care Trust

Trafford North PCT
Trafford South PCT

North Peterborough PCT
South Peterborough PCT

Central Derby PCT
Greater Derby PCT

South Liverpool PCT
Central Liverpool PCT

New Forest PCT
Eastleigh and Test Valley South PCT

Blackwater Valley and Hart PCT
North Hampshire PCT

Fareham and Gosport PCT
East Hampshire PCT

Mansfield District PCT
Ashfield PCT

Royston, Buntingford and Bishops Stortford PCT
South East Hertfordshire PCT

Hertsmere PCT
St Albans and Harpenden PCT

South East Oxfordshire PCT
South West Oxfordshire PCT

Cherwell Vale PCT
North East Oxfordshire PCT

Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT
West Wiltshire PCT

South Wiltshire PCT
Swindon PCT

Huddersfield Central PCT
South Huddersfield PCT

Carlisle and District PCT
Eden Valley PCT
West Cumbria PCT

North Birmingham PCT
Walsall Teaching PCT

Cambridge City PCT
South Cambridge PCT

England - Local PCT News

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust - Stroke
A new 15-bed Specialist Stroke Unit has opened at Calderdale Royal Infirmary. The unit's stroke team comprises doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, a speech and language therapist, a dietician and other stroke specialists.

Central Manchester PCT - CHD
The PCT is one of the sponsors of a scheme whereby a team of 22 waiters and kitchen staff from six restaurants in Manchester's Chinatown area have been trained in the use of defibrillators by paramedics from the Greater Manchester Ambulance Service.

Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust - Award
Harvest Ward, the Trust's 15-bed Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, has won the "Team of the Year" award from the National Association of Psychiatric Intensive Care Units and been chosen by the DoH as the Governance Network pilot site for the south-west.

Darlington PCT - Osteoporosis
The Better Bones Bonanza is a campaign targeting smokers and is designed to highlight and tackle osteoporosis. Healthy bone tissue is eaten away by some of the 4,500 chemicals in every cigarette.

Heart of Birmingham PCT - Diabetes
Dr Felix Burden, Consultant Community Diabetologist for the PCT, has published guidelines to enable Muslims with diabetes to fast safely during the holy month of Ramadhan. Fasting for Ramadhan, which ends on 12 Nov, is one of the five pillars of Islam.

Lincolnshire - Palliative Care
A 3-year project to develop the best possible care for the terminally ill is to be pioneered in Lincolnshire. Marie Curie Cancer Care is working in partnership with St Barnabas Hospice, local PCTs and hospitals, social services and other local charities.

The partnership will be considering new ways of providing care, including:

- Services to keep patients at home and reduce usage of hospice and hospital beds
- Improved discharge from hospital
- Better information for patients on accessing supportive and palliative care services locally
- Development of on-call Palliative Care Practitioners - Development of a Telemedicine service permitting two way consultation with patients in hospitals and hospices via a webcam
- Palliative care training for healthcare assistants and nurses including nursing home staff


The services which are being proposed should make it possible for many more people to be cared for in their homes, rather than going into hospital.

Bob Neilans, Lincolnshire Palliative Care Lead and Mid Trent Cancer Palliative Care Network Chairman, said "This project has the potential to make a huge difference for terminally ill people in Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire is a particularly challenging county into which to introduce services for patients at home, as so many people live in rural areas. But we have very strong local partnerships, and we’re all determined to get it working."

Mid Devon PCT - Local Pilot
The PCT Research Group is organising a trial to assess the impact of training NHS GPs in the use, side effects and interactions of five widely used herbal remedies. The trial will be supported by the Peninsula Medical School and will start early next year

Mid Devon PCT - Stroke
Mid Devon PCT is setting up a new specialist team and unit for people who suffer strokes, and is in the process of a public consultation on plans for a 10-bed specialist stroke rehab unit to be based at Crediton Hospital. Each year in Mid Devon, 300 people will suffer a stroke serious enough to require hospital admission.

It is proposed that stroke patients would first be referred to a consultant neurologist based at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital for investigation and diagnosis. Anyone who needed to be admitted to hospital would spend about seven days in the Royal Devon's acute stroke unit.

Patients living in Mid Devon would then transfer to the community stroke unit for further specialist rehabilitation by team members, who would also manage their return home and follow up care.

If the unit goes ahead, it will open in spring 2005.

Newcastle PCT - Sexual Health
Newcastle PCT has launched a new website for its GUM Clinic. The site contains a self-diagnosis section, an A to Z of infections and instructions on how to get to the clinic.

North Devon PCT / Devon Partnership NHS Trust - Mental Health Rehabilitation
A 9-week patient and public consultation is in progress regarding the development of mental health rehabilitation services in north Devon. Discussions include the future of Hyde House, a 10-bed rehabilitation assessment and treatment unit in Barnstaple for people with severe and enduring mental illness. Hyde House also provides a telephone helpline for ex-residents and is managed by Devon Partnership NHS Trust.

There has been considerable investment over the past two years in developing a range of home-based services such as Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment, Early Intervention in Psychosis and Assertive Outreach. North Devon PCT and Devon Partnership NHS Trust are arranging events at which people can explore how the range of services provided at Hyde House might be safely and effectively provided through community-based services.

The consultation document states that £250,000 of the £330,000 running costs associated with Hyde House could be offset against the current financial difficulties facing both North Devon PCT and Devon Partnership NHS Trust, leaving £80,000 available for reinvestment in community-based services, although both Trusts have agreed that there may be an opportunity for this sum to be increased.

Sheffield West PCT - Award
An Eating Disorders Clinic at the Porterbrook Medical Centre has won an Innovative Clinical Care Award from GP Magazine. The practice, based at Sheffield University, has now been commissioned to provide eating disorders treatment as an enhanced service.

Shropshire County PCT - Obesity
An obesity action plan, "The Healthy Eating and Active for Life Strategy", has been drawn up by the PCT on behalf of the Shropshire Partnership. It contains 27 recommendations which will now be the subject of a major public consultation.

West of Cornwall PCT - Nurse-led Clinics
A team of specialist nurses is now offering local, nurse-led clinics at Poltair Hospital for patients suffering from stroke, Parkinson's Disease, continence problems or diabetes. Previously, patients would have had to travel to Camborne for these services

Wales - Health Board News

Swansea NHS Trust - Wound Care
A pilot project is running at Swansea's Morriston Hospital to reduce the number of people suffering from pressure wounds. Sores and pressure wounds most often affect those with poor mobility who spend long periods in a bed or chair, and their treatment costs the NHS in Wales £88m a year.

In some severe cases, plastic surgery is needed to close the wounds, and this is partly why Morriston Hospital was chosen, because it has a plastic surgery and burns unit which treats people from as far afield as Chepstow and Aberystwyth.

The pilot is headed by Clinical Project Manager Nigel Broad and Senior Rehabilitation Engineer Derek James. They have been raising awareness of the problem by talking to hundreds of doctors, nurses and other clinical staff within Swansea NHS Trust.

The project is also targeting prevention at source by visiting residential and care homes, and patients in their own homes - to date 130 patients have been referred with over 90 treated, and in some cases, the length of stay of patients admitted to hospital for treatment has been halved.

Their work is being evaluated by Birmingham University and once completed in April the aim is to get hospitals across Wales involved.

Scotland - Local NHS News

NHS Argyll and Clyde - LHCC Merger
In NHS Argyll and Clyde, Renfrew LHCC has merged into West Renfrewshire LHCC. This is in preparation for the establishment of Community Health Partnerships which are due to come into being in April 2005. There are now 6 LHCCs within NHS Argyll and Clyde.

NHS Tayside - Substance Misuse
Dr Brian Kidd is leading a redesign of substance misuse services in the Tayside region, and extra funding has been agreed to recruit a further 20 staff to deliver the new service. Changes will include ending the "indefinite" provision of methadone.

Up to 1300 people in the region are taking methadone, and all will be called in to have their cases reviewed and their needs re-assessed. They will then be expected to participate in individual programmes which are designed to help addicts gradually come off methadone.

Northern Ireland - Local NHS News

Northern LHSCG - Diabetes
The LHSCG has presented a plan for improving diabetes services to a workshop of service users and practitioners. Approximately 3,500 people in the area have diabetes - this is around 2% of the population, and many of them are over 65 years.

Diabetes care in the North-West is provided in GP-led clinics, through community-based Podiatry services and through hospital-based dietetics and psychology services. The LHSCG has funded Foyle HSS Trust to put in place a dedicated Chronic Disease Management Team which brings together key elements of Diabetes care in one team. This will provide a more integrated service, particularly to newly diagnosed persons.

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