Patient Congress puts local people in the shoes of NHS Commissioners

Transcription

1 June 2016 Edition 3 Patient Congress puts local people in the shoes of NHS Commissioners On 19 April 2016, NHS North Durham CCG hosted our Spring Patient Congress event. This event invited patients, public and local stakeholders to come together to hear some of the latest updates regarding key projects and areas of work. There were also a range of information stalls from local providers and community organisations for people to speak to and find out what is happening in the local area. A palantypist, sign language interpreters and a crèche were provided on the day for people to take advantage of and help different groups participate. Feedback from participants told us that; 89% felt that overall the event was Excellent or Good with 100% of the attendees stating that they would come to another event like this one. From the responses 42% said that they definitely felt more involved in the work of the local NHS as a result of attending. The new Chair of the North Durham Patient Reference Group outlined some of the work the group have been doing over the past year to help raise patient issues with the CCG. The event also saw a member of the Transgender community speak about the experiences faced by when engaging with and using NHS services. Presentations were also delivered by three of the organisations senior clinical leaders on a range of issues. Dr David Smart provided an overview to the work that saw patients involved in the process of setting the organisations priorities for 2016/17. Dr Patrick Ojechi gave an update to the development of a new approach to Diabetes care in North Durham,which is now being implemented. Dr Richard Lilly outlined some of the key areas of work regarding Mental Health services and the challenges that are being addressed moving forward.

2 Participants also had the opportunity to experience some of the dilemmas faced by NHS commissioners through an interactive activity in the format of a board game. This game presented people with a range of scenarios to debate and discuss in relation to; innovations in practice, public opinions, government policies or public health and prevention maters. The groups had to decide if they wished to invest in a new piece of work, campaign or initiative. If they did feel that an investment needed to be made the groups then had to identify where, from within the existing CCG budget the resources would need to be made available. Comments from people about the experience included: Enjoyed the commissioning challenge helped to understand how difficult commissioning can be difficult decision making in restricted financial situations. Well facilitated. Great board game, demonstrates how difficult it is when it comes to resource allocation and decision making. Date for your diary: The Autumn patient congress will be taking place on Tuesday 18 October As part of the rotation of these events across North Durham, this event will be in the Derwentside area. Further details will be made available later in the year. Patient Voice in the System Resilience Group The System Resilience Group (SRG) meets on a monthly basis at Sedgefield Community Hospital and works across County Durham and Darlington. It is chaired by Dr Stuart Findley (DDES CCG) and is composed of lead officers from the Foundation trust, NHS England, GP Urgent Care, Fire and Rescue, Durham Constabulary, North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) and two patient representatives. Of which I am one. The group exists to monitor performance of all aspects of Urgent Care to include Ambulance targets and patient discharge procedures. Recent activities included the planning of Urgent Care over the Easter holiday to include GP opening times. Locations of surgeries open needed to be near pharmacies which were also open. Handover delays (from an ambulance crew to emergency teams in hospitals) with NEAS were addressed and proposed nursing staff should receive handovers in A&E to free up ambulances and ambulance staff. After the success of the Perfect Week results (an initiative in hospitals run over one week during which all local health and social care partners focus on improving emergency care), hospital trusts were introducing a walk the wall where a group of lead officers and medical personnel do a tour of wards and departments. There is continuing success with consultant led early ward rounds with emphasis on discharging patients early in the day. There was also an improvement of ambulance handovers and four hour waits (the national target waiting time for A&E). 2

3 The police have reported success in their first at the scene and have assisted in medical emergencies especially in the Consett area. For my part, Brian Jackson, I have placed patient issues before the group including; Cardio-catheterisation at UHND, Ultrasound delays and appointments (I was assured that this was now 4 6 weeks). With the introduction of GPs holding appointments for 111 requests, I expressed concerns that patients may use 111 as a short cut if unable to secure GP appointments directly. I was assured that triage would take place at all stages of the appointments, so this will not happen and only emergencies will be seen through this route. Brian Jackson North Durham Patient Reference Group North Durham Patient Reference Group consists of representatives from the many G.P. practices across North Durham, working together to discuss and consider patient viewpoints, experiences and involvement in decision making. We provide a variety of quality information, viewpoints, ideas and issues which the Clinical Commissioning Group can consider when making its decisions about local health service provision. We meet every month for 2 hours and bring patient representation from our own GP practice. Over the last three months we have had Edmund Lovell attend and present to us to inform us of the details and importance of the Better Health Programme and Jane Hesford, from Count Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust, explain the role and responsibilities of the Patient Experience Team. Patient Issues are the main focus of our discussions and we continue to raise issues with clinical commissioners and highlight examples of good practice. Examples over the past three months have included: No formal policy or guidelines to inform parents regarding outbreaks of head lice at schools The 111 service and how this affects GP practice appointments. Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory in UHND and its future Kings Fund report We also were involved with North Durham s Clinical Commissioning Group Patient Congress in April as a key speaker We are always interested in new patient representative from GP practices not represented at our meetings. For further details contact The Durham Community Action team who provide our administrative support. Telephone:

4 Help shape future health care services NHS North Durham CCG are always looking for your views and about which parts of our local NHS services are working well or could be improved. In June there will be two discussion groups taking place, these sessions will give you the chance to share your views on future priority areas and services you feel either need addressing or should be recognised as good practice examples. Come along and share your views on: Thursday 9 June, from 10am 12 noon at Sherburn Community Centre, Front Street, Sherburn Village, County Durham DH6 1HD Tuesday 28 June from 12.30pm 2.30pm at North Road Methodist Church, North Road, County Durham DH1 4SG Improving communication with the Deafened and Hearing Impaired adults In conjunction with Durham Community Action, throughout February, March and April we continued to work with people who are deafened or have hearing impairments. We held two events to discuss various health related topics. Discussions were around the 111 service and the barriers it has for people who are deafened or have a hearing impairment, as a consequence of this we spent some time helping deafened and hearing impaired people who have struggled to use the 111 service to understand that there is now an alternative contact method. There was an online session that focused on enabling people to understand how this option works. The activity firstly took everyone through what the 111 service does, when to use it and when not to use it to help people understand it is there when their GP practice closed. We spent time talking through the Urgent Care Services and Out Of Hours provision and gained information about barriers to deafened and hearing impaired individuals when they need urgent care, which included access to an interpreter, understanding the jargon and written information formats. We also discussed pain management and asked three questions: If people understood what pain management is? If a person was in severe pain where would that person want to receive treatment? What treatments would a person want to be able to access to manage their pain? Most of the respondents access their GP practice or Walk In Centre when they are in pain but the majority of people thought it was important for people in severe pain to be referred quickly to prevent their mental health from deteriorating. This enabled us to talk to the group about what services local pharmacies can offer when their GP practice is closed as well as what services their pharmacy can offer instead of accessing their GP practice. Further sessions are planned for June 2016 to ensure the voices of deafened and hearing impaired individuals is considered in the commissioning decisions. 4

5 The Patient Voice in CCG projects Making a Personal Health Budget work for you patients shape the local offer Working collaboratively across three months at the start of 2016, the three Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) for Darlington and County Durham (NHS Darlington CCG, NHS Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield CCG and NHS North Durham CCG) obtained people s views and aspirations for how Personal Health Budgets (PHB) could work for them. Specific support was provided by Mencap, Citizens Advice Bureau, Alzhiemers Society, Peoples Parliament, Waddington St and both of the local Healthwatch organisations to ensure the survey questions were able to reach the desired audience. The comments and information provided was used to shape the local offer and specifically, who should be eligible for a PHB in North Durham from 1 April Further details about the local offer and PHBs can be found on the NHS North Durham CCG Website. Ensuring Urgent Care Out of Hours works for patients We have been undertaking a range of conversations with local people about their experiences of and aspirations for Urgent Care Out of Hours services; meaning, services people access when their GP practice is closed during the evening and at weekends. We started these specific conversations in January 2016 and they have continued to take place all the way up to May We included this as the key topic for discussion at various Drop in and Focus group sessions delivered in conjunction with Durham Community Action. Working with local partners we have also been able to link with BID services, young people including those with a learning disability, parents of pre-school children, older people, people identifying as from the LGBT community and Gypsy Traveller community as well as the wider public. The final write up of the information from the engagement activity is to be completed in June This will then be compiled with feedback and views from local GPs and presented to the CCG s Management Executive committee. Stay in touch with us To find out more about what is happening at NHS North Durham CCG and to keep up to date with the latest news and developments you can: Follow us on Twitter Search for us on Facebook Visit our website - You can also contact us by phone , nduccg.northdurhamccg@nhs.net or by post at; North Durham Clinical Commissioning Group, The Rivergreen Centre, Aykley Heads, Durham, DH1 5TS 5

6 Carers Week 2016 Carers Week, 6-12 June, is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring, highlight the challenges that carers face and recognise the contribution they make to families and communities throughout the UK and our communities. The aim of the week is to help organisations to build Carer Friendly Communities by helping organisations, surgeries or offices become a better place for carers. For further information Tel: jan.burden@dccarers.org Durham County Carers will be celebrating by organising a Carers Bake Off, Stress less and Relaxation days, River Cruises on the River Tees and Theatre Trips. Launching the Young Carers Neighbourhood Charter in County Durham Family Action s Young Carers Service, known as The Bridge, has some exciting news to share. Together with the Bishop Auckland and Shildon (BASH) Area Action Partnership and Shildon Health Express, The Bridge is set to develop the first: Young Carer Neighbourhood Charter! Building on the success of the Young Carers School Charter, The Bridge, BASH AAP and Shildon Health Express will work together with the BASH community to improve support for young carers. The pilot will start in April and aims to develop improved awareness and understanding of young carers living in Bishop Auckland and Shildon. Allison Hicks (Operational Manager) said: this is an exciting new project and Family Action are delighted to be working with BASH on this very important issue, without this work these children and young people may otherwise go unnoticed. The Neighbourhood Charter is a way of reversing this and offering help early. BASH is the first AAP to work with Family Action on this important issue. Andrew Walker, BASH AAP Coordinator said Children and Young People is a priority for the BASH AAP and working with The Bridge and Health Express we are delighted that we can support this excellent project. We are committed as a partnership to supporting the young carers in our community and are very excited to part of the first Neighbourhood Charter. The Young Carers Neighbourhood Charter is to be launched at The Locomotion Museum, Shildon on the 9 th June at 6pm 8pm. Contact durhamyoungcarers@family-action.org.uk for tickets to, the Full Steam Ahead Event. 6

7 Durham teenager reaches finals of prestigious national awards Sophie Robinson, 13 from Durham is one of three Young Carer of the Year finalists to be recognised at the 2016 MS Society charity s Awards ceremony in London. She was nominated by Marie Fuggle, Sophie s support worker at Family Action, The Bridge Young Carers, Durham. Marie said of Sophie s nomination: It was a pleasure to put Sophie forward for the MS Society Awards. Sophie has come across a number of difficulties in her life, most notably in her role of caring for her father during which her strength of character, positivity and determination shines through. She has a passion for making a difference in other people s lives including acting as a Family Action Young Carers Ambassador and a voice within her local community. Sophie is a well deserved and inspirational nominee. Well done Sophie! Sophie's Father Stewart was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis over 18 years ago. Every weekend for the past three years, Sophie has cared for her father while staying over at his house. This includes general housework, shopping, cooking and other practical tasks as well as providing company, emotional care and support. Sophie said she was shocked when she discovered she was a category finalist: When I found out I was a finalist in the MS Awards I felt happy and was in shock. I was really surprised as I didn t expect to get rewarded for what I do, it s what I have always done. Michelle Mitchell, Chief Executive of the MS Society, said: The MS Society Awards are our way of recognising the amazing achievements of people with MS and those who go above and beyond the call of duty in supporting people with the condition. We are proud to have Sophie as one of this year s finalists, and we are looking forward to welcoming her to our awards ceremony later this month. There are more than 100,000 people living with MS in the UK, and the MS Society is the leading UK charity for people with the condition. People typically start experiencing symptoms in their 20s or 30s, which include sight loss, pain, fatigue, incontinence and disability. To find out more about the 2016 MS Society Awards please visit You can follow the Awards ceremony live on Twitter using #MSAwards. County Carers Support Contact Jan Burden is the Health and Social Care Development Worker at Durham County Carers Support. Her role is to work with Health and Social Care professionals to raise awareness of the service and work in partnership to improve services for Carers. Using the contact details below you can: Invite Jan to come along to your team meetings/training/events to explain how she can help you to support Carers Ask to receive our quarterly Carers newsletters Receive half-yearly bulletins, which are designed especially for Social Care Practitioners Request the direct contact details team members. Ask any questions you may have You can contact Jan on or jan.burden@dccarers.org 7