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October 2004
NHS News - October 2004
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NHS News - October 2004.
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Health Direction
England - Local PCT News
Chorley and South Ribble PCT - Substance Misuse
A new Substance
Misuse Support Centre is to open this month in Golden Hill Lane. A team of
specialist nurses, doctors, substance misuse and social workers will be
stationed at the centre and the South Ribble Alcohol Service will be relocated
there.
Greater Peterborough Primary Care Partnership -
Osteoporosis
An innovative programme is being rolled out across
Peterborough GP practices which aims to identify those at risk of osteoporosis.
Patients will be sent a questionnaire which will help nurses decide if the
patient is at risk of osteoporosis and, if they are, they will be offered an
assessment or scan which will establish if they have the disease.
Early detection and treatment are key in helping prevent people with
osteoporosis from breaking bones unnecessarily. A pilot of this programme was
recently carried out at Oundle Medical Practice. Of those identified as being
at risk, and subsequently scanned, 7 in every 10 people, were found to have or
were developing osteoporosis.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight SHA -
Refocusing NHS Leadership
The Strategic Health Authority has been
exploring ways of increasing the effectiveness and capacity of its local NHS
leadership and has proposed several joint management arrangements for local
PCTs.
Following meetings with various key stakeholders, the new
"cluster governance arrangements" become operational this month. The following
PCTs will share a single management team:
Fareham and Gosport PCT, and
East Hampshire PCT
Blackwater Valley and Hart PCT, and North Hampshire
PCT
Mid Hampshire PCT, New Forest PCT, and Eastleigh and Test Valley South
PCT
Portsmouth City tPCT and Southampton City PCT will each keep a
single management team.
The Isle of Wight is not affected by these
proposals - it is currently considering the formation of a single care trust
comprising all the health services on the island.
Heart of
Birmingham PCT - Diabetes
Diabetes is a high priority in the heart of
Birmingham area. Approximately 12,000 people are receiving treatment for
diabetes and it is thought that twice that number are suffering from the
disease.
Dr Felix Burden, Consultant Community Diabetologist for the
PCT, has described diabetes as a hurricane blowing through the city and
believes that the only way to bring the situation under control is through
improved diet and exercise.
He said that while diabetes is a national
problem, the situation is far worse in Birmingham because of the city's level
of social deprivation and large ethnic minority populations. The PCT ensures
that patients are able to access advice and treatment at their GP or health
centre, rather than having to go to hospital. It also has strong links with
pharmacies and other specialists.
Liverpool Women's Hospital NHS
Trust - Pharmacy
All inpatient clinical areas at the Trust are now
covered by e-prescribing, with the exception of the neonatal unit. There is now
total integration between the pharmacy stock system and patient prescriptions
as well as finance and accounting sub-systems
North Norfolk PCT -
Pulmonary Rehabilitation
Following a successful pilot for the Pursuing
Perfection Programme, Kelling Hospital is to run a rehabilitation course for
people living with long-term pulmonary disease. The pilot scheme enabled
patients living in rural North Norfolk to have treatment locally and meant that
they did not have to travel to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
The rehabilitation course will be run by a team of nurses,
physiotherapists and occupational therapists at the hospital's Bayfield day
care centre. It is a ten-week education and exercise programme and is expected
to take up to 48 patients over the course of a year.
Patients will be
given advice on diets, maintaining independence, breathing control and
information on inhalers, nebulisers and respiratory drugs. Other PCTs in the
county are also looking to extend the scheme into their rural hospitals.
Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Trust - CHD
Three
nurses at Peterborough District Hospital are running an new Acute Coronary
Syndrome Service. The service began as a 12-month pilot scheme last year but is
now permanent. About 100 people arrive at the hospital every month with heart
symptoms, and about three quarters of these have genuine cardiac problems which
require treatment.
When a possible heart patient arrives at the
hospital, one of the three nurses will be contacted to make an initial
assessment. If their condition is serious, they will be taken straight to the
Coronary Care Unit to be treated. The nurses will then care for the patient
throughout their stay in hospital.
The new service has seen the number
of heart patients seen within the 30-minute target rise from 75% to 85%, and
greater efficiency in prescribing the correct medication has also led to more
beds being freed up for new patients.
South Liverpool PCT -
Obesity
A team in Liverpool is piloting a scheme which will monitor
eight obese children for a year. The team comprises a dietician, a behaviour
expert and an exercise specialist and hopes to see each child and their family
for two hours each week after school at a local high school.
The eight
children are aged between six and 12 and come from the Speke area. Speke was
chosen for the pilot because it is an area of high deprivation.
The
project is a joint initiative between Liverpool John Moores University, South
Liverpool PCT and Liverpool city council, and could be expanded to other parts
of the city if it is successful.
University Hospitals Birmingham
NHS Trust - Substance Misuse
Selly Oak Hospital has launched a new
9-month Alcohol Liaison pilot service in its Accident and Emergency department.
An Alcohol Liaison Nurse is part of this pilot and there are further plans for
a Drug Liaison Nurse.
West Lincolnshire PCT - CHD
The PCT
has published a 3-year Health Management Plan which addresses the problem of
CHD in Lincolnshire. The county has a "significantly high" number of people
with heart problems.
Extra courses will be available for all medical
and nursing personnel, and every GP surgery will have at least one member of
staff with expertise in treating heart patients. There are also plans to
recruit a dedicated nurse trained in heart disease management, who will work
with hospitals and surgeries across Lincolnshire.
Wales - Health
Board News
Anglesey LHB - Nurse Practitioners
Nurse
Practitioner, Marianne Walmsley, has presented a paper discussing the LHB's
nursing strategy at a national conference attended by more than 150 nurses and
has also arranged a primary nursing conference on Anglesey in April, the first
of its kind.
She has been working as a Nurse Practitioner in a
Holyhead practice for nine months, and is also working with the LHB and the
University of Wales at Bangor to set up a Nurse Practitioner course which
should start at the end of the year.
Another development which has had
an impact on the role of the practice nurse is the introduction of Coaching
Access Wales appointments systems at GP surgeries. This involves matching
surgeries and clinics to meet the differing, though predictable, needs of
patients so that they are able to book appointments to see the doctor, nurse or
other health professional on the day they wish.
With the introduction
of the new system, patients who would usually be seen by their GP with
diabetes, asthma, arthritis or CHD can now be seen by the practice nurse, with
some practices developing nurse-led clinics in these areas.
Conwy
and Denbighshire NHS Trust - Medicines Management
A new Specialised
Medicines Unit has been opened at Glan Clwyd Hospital to produce a range of
medicines which cannot be obtained commercially. The products will also be
available for use beyond the hospital by patients at home.
Gwent
Healthcare NHS Trust - Business in the Community
GWENT Healthcare NHS
Trust has become the first public healthcare organisation in the UK to become a
member of Business
in the Community, whose members are committed to improving their positive
impact on society.
North East Wales NHS Trust - COPD
A new
service has been launched by the Trust to help patients with COPD. The
Pulmonary Outreach Team will provide support for patients who are being
discharged from Wrexham Maelor Hospital following a flare-up of their
condition.
The service will initially serve patients living within a
five-mile radius of the hospital and the team, which comprises Respiratory
Nurses, an Occupational Therapist and a Physiotherapist, will provide
specialist respiratory care for patients in their own homes.
Patients
and their carers will also be taught how to self-manage their condition and
will be provided with education and monitoring for a maximum of six weeks. This
should enable selected patients to go home earlier than they would otherwise be
able to, while still receiving specialist support from the team.
Scotland - Local NHS News
NHS Argyll and Clyde - Out of
Hours
The GP who covers the Isle of Luing has opted out of providing
out-of-hours cover, but is remaining on call voluntarily for six months into
the new NHS 24 system for his own peace of mind and to reassure the local
community.
NHS Lothian - CHD
New equipment and procedures
introduced in Lothian have effectively turned ambulances into mobile coronary
care units. ECG readings are transmitted to the Royal Infirmary and advice
passed back to paramedics who can administer thrombolysis if needed.
NHS Lothian - NHS 24
NHS 24 is currently being rolled out across
Scotland and will be operational in Edinburgh this month. It should be
available to the whole country by the end of the year and will be an integral
part of out-of-hours care from October.
Northern Ireland - Local
NHS News
Armagh and Dungannon LHSCG - COPD
A COPD task
group has been established to review and improve services in the LHSCG area.
COPD is a major cause of death in people over the age of 45 in Armagh and
Dungannon and there are an estimated 1,032 patients with the disease in the
area.
The task group aims to highlight gaps in existing services in
order to identify areas for potential improvement and investment. To date, the
LHSCG has progressed a range of work aimed at improving respiratory disease
services including:
- smoking cessation initiatives targeted at
adults, teenage girls and patients with COPD
- a pulmonary rehabilitation
pilot for patients with COPD
- spirometry training to help practice staff
diagnose COPD
- the purchase of spirometers, carbon monoxide monitors and
pulse oximeters for GP practices
Causeway HSS Trust - Mental
Health
A new independent living facility will open next year in
Coleraine. It will be a centre of excellence for the care of people suffering
from all forms of dementia and is a joint project between the Trust and
Coleraine's Fold Housing Association.
Craigavon and Banbridge LHSCG
- Older People
A new community care scheme is being developed in the
Craigavon and Banbridge area which will enable older people to receive
rehydration and intravenous therapies in their own homes.
The scheme
is being developed by Craigavon and Banbridge Community HSS Trust in
partnership with Craigavon Area Hospitals Group HSS Trust, Craigavon and
Banbridge LHSCG and local GPs.
Older people are admitted to hospital
for these treatments on a daily basis, and research has shown that they recover
much more quickly in a community setting.
Patients will be referred to
the scheme by the Accident and Emergency Department, treatment will be provided
by the Trust's District Nursing Service and it will be supervised by a GP.
Mid Ulster LHSCG - Diabetes
Mid-Ulster LHSCG has introduced
a 3-month pilot in which local pharmacists provide early screening for Type 2
Diabetes. There are 10 participating pharmacies in the scheme, which is led by
the Mid-Ulster Pharmacy Locality Group and funded by the LHSCG.
Southern H and SSB - Children's Health
The Southern Area Children
and Young People's Committee has launched a new website about children's
services, designed by children and young people.
The Southern Area
Children and Young People's Committee comprises statutory, voluntary, community
and minority ethnic groups, and is responsible for the implementation of the
Southern Area Children's Services Plan.
The site gives information,
support and advice on issues that affect young people, and will also be used to
consult children, young people and other interested people on the Children's
Services Plan 2005-8
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