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NHS News - June 2005

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England - Local PCT News

Bedfordshire Heartlands PCT - Wound Care

District nurses at Bedfordshire Heartlands PCT have been using maggots to treat wounds for a number of years, and are now encouraging local patients to volunteer for a nationwide study which will compare their effectiveness with conventional dressings.

Bristol South and West PCT - Substance Misuse

GPs at Grange Road Surgery in Bishopsworth have said they will stop treatment for drug addicts because they are not receiving enough funding from the PCT. Each consultation costs an average of £16 but only £4 is received from the PCT. It is believed by GPs that there is a cash shortfall because some of the funding provided by the government for drug treatment services is being used to pay off a £100m NHS deficit in the former Avon area. Bristol South and West PCT spends about £300,000 funding treatment for substance misusers, and is responsible for finding alternative provision if doctors withdraw their services.

Carlisle and District PCT - COPD Award

The PCT's COPD Outreach Service has won 3rd prize in the NHS Innovations North Awards, in the "Innovative Service Delivery" category. The team provides "early supported discharge" which helps patients with COPD return home from hospital sooner than usual.

Central and Greater Derby PCTs - GP Services for Asylum Seekers

The Fountain Primary Care Service, in Sale Street, was set up in March 2003 and was originally designed to cater exclusively for asylum seekers. It was estimated that 900 asylum seekers would use the service, and there was some local unrest as previous patients who lived near the surgery were forced to travel to other practices. However, fewer patients than anticipated have used the surgery, and it was closed in December. Dr Prasanta Chakraborti is Vice Chairman of Derbyshire LMC. He said: "Nobody apart from the PCT wanted to use the Sale Street surgery for the purposes for which it was used." However, the Greater and Central Derby PCTs blamed the surgery's closure on the Government's decision to halt dispersal of asylum seekers to Derby in 2003. A spokeswoman said: "If the number of people coming into Derby had been what we had originally anticipated, it would have worked."

The Fountain Primary Care Service has now been replaced by a part-time mobile service, run by Nurse Practitioner Karen Gilliver, who has seen about 40 patients in the first four months. The "New Entrant Service" has been widened to include all immigrants to Derby - asylum seekers, refugees and foreigners entitled to live in the UK such as those from the European Union. There are an estimated 1,000 asylum seekers and refugees living in Derby, and the New Entrant Service has a budget of £150,000 for 2005-6. It hopes to take on a part-time GP and a counsellor.

Coventry PCT - Chief Executive Job-Share

Coventry PCT is the first in the country to have a Chief Executive post which is shared between two people. Mike Attwood and Stephen Jones will take on the joint role at the end of May.

Darlington PCT - Hypertension

Hypertension Clinics are to be set up at two Darlington GP surgeries (Parkgate and Carmel), run by PCT Pharmaceutical Adviser, Chris Williams. He is the first pharmacist in the town to obtain the necessary Supplementary Prescribing qualification.

Durham Dales PCT - Diabetes

Durham Dales PCT has launched a one-year Diabetes Screening Pilot in 6 community pharmacies in the Wear Valley area, which will identify and support "at risk" patients, with referrals to GPs and other healthcare professionals where appropriate.

Durham Dales PCT - Screening Pilot

The Weardale Practice has been chosen to pilot a new surgery-based screening service for male patients. The clinic will use a new bladder scanner which is particularly helpful to patients suffering with prostate or urinary tract problems.

East and West Sussex Mental Health Trusts - Public Consultation

A public consultation has been launched on the future of mental health services in West and East Sussex. Any changes will also affect drug and alcohol services, and provision for people with learning disability. The consultation will last until the 19th August, and is being led by Western Sussex PCT on behalf of the Trusts involved.

The three options being considered are:

- Keep the three Trusts as they are now with collaboration where appropriate

- Merger between West Sussex Health and Social Care, and East Sussex County Healthcare, with South Downs Health continuing to provide the relevant services for Brighton and Hove

- Merger of the 3 Trusts, but including only the mental health, learning disability and substance misuse services currently provided by South Downs Health

Eastern Leicester PCT - CHD

Dr Roshan of the Willows Medical Centre has equipped his surgery to be able to screen blood samples for cholesterol levels. His service is aimed mainly at people over 40 and ethnic minority groups. Results will be available within 15 minutes of the test and patients will have to pay £30. Dr Roshan has also installed a computerised exercise bike which tests how well a patient's heart stands up to physical exertion - this test will cost £100. Dr Roshan has said that the cost is subsidised by the practice, and that private patients will pay more. He hopes that the tests will make a real difference to how the practice deals with heart disease, and says that if it is successful he will approach the NHS in Leicestershire with regard to funding the service for everyone.

Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA - Joint Chief Executive

The new chief executive of the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA will be Alan Burns, who currently holds the position for the Trent SHA. It is believed he will spend 3 days a week working for Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambs and 2 days a week for Trent.

North Lincolnshire PCT - Falls Prevention

The PCT is to extend its successful Falls Prevention Project for 12 months. The project is based around Locality Teams of healthcare professionals, social services staff and local community members. In 2004, the number of fallers was reduced by 30%.

Solihull PCT - Care Trust Consultation

Solihull PCT and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council have decided to conduct a formal consultation on whether to establish a Care Trust which would combine all the functions of the PCT with those of the Council's Adult Social Services.

West Cumbria PCT - Continence

The Pelvic Floor Advice Groups Scheme, led by a Senior Physiotherapist at West Cumbria PCT, has won a prize at the NHS North Innovation Awards, and the £1,500 prize-money will be used to develop and expand the service.

Wales - Local Health Board News

Swansea LHB - Chronic Disease Management

The Chronic Disease Management Team, including 5 specially-trained nurses, is part of a £200,000 pilot scheme designed to care for chronically ill patients in the community. Swansea believes is the first LHB to give such a degree of commitment to CDM.

Torfaen LHB - Community Nurse Practitioners

GPs have decided to stop seeing patients at their twice weekly doctor sessions at Trevethin Health Centre - they considered that as most patients had to be referred to more fully-equipped main surgeries, the sessions were not worthwhile. However, a public consultation exercise has raised the possibility of the centre becoming a Nurse Practitioner-led service with no GP input, and this is approved by the LHB, which is unable to prevent GPs from withdrawing their services. The centre is run by a Nurse Practitioner, who can prescribe and monitor medication. Minor illness and chronic disease management account for much of its work, with blood pressure reviews, cervical smears, and contraceptive pill checks among the caseload.

The centre serves a population of more than 9,000 in the hilltop communities of Trevethin, St Cadoc's and Penygarn, which are among Gwent's most deprived areas. Dr Andrew Lohfink is a GP and LHB member. He said: "This is one of the most important decisions this board has made because, if it is successful, when GPs retire in future their partners might think they do not need to replace them because a nurse practitioner service is working well. "The prospect of having one GP per practice is a huge step closer because of this."

Scotland - Local NHS News

NHS Argyll and Clyde - Finance

Andy Kerr has announced that NHS Argyll and Clyde is to be disbanded, and its responsibilities divided between NHS Greater Glasgow and NHS Highlands. It is believed that the Board has debts of over £100m, and £80m of public funds will be used to pay these. NHS Argyll and Clyde covers a vast geographical area, stretching from Paisley to Campbeltown and including dozens of west coast islands. Greater Glasgow is thought likely to take control of services in Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire and parts of Dunbartonshire, the running of the Vale of Leven Hospital in Alexandria, Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock and the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley. NHS Highlands is likely to take over services in Argyll and Bute, running the Lorne and Islands Hospital in Oban.

NHS Lothian - Elderly Care

A special team of care staff is to be recruited to look after elderly patients at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, following recent claims of neglect. New "housekeepers" will befriend elderly patients, make beds and monitor their nutritional needs, extra receptionists will be hired to take over administrative duties during evening hours to leave nurses free for other duties, and a nursing review will be carried out to ensure an appropriate mix of skills on the wards.

NHS Scotland - Heart Failure / BNP Test

NHS Quality Improvement Scotland has advised NHS Scotland that the B-type natriuretic peptide blood test, which confirms the absence of heart failure, should be made available to GP practices. It is hoped that it will be available within the next year.

NHS Scotland - Mental Health

A national training programme for Mental Health "First Aiders" is to be launched in June which will train 300 instructors over the next three years. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) was developed in Australia, and has been called "CPR for the mind".

NHS Western Isles - Training Courses

New courses are being designed to train specialist doctors and nurses to work in remote parts of Scotland. The UHI Millennium Institute, the body aiming to become a university for the Highlands and Islands, has appointed Andrew Sim as its first professor of remote and rural medicine. Andrew Sim is a Consultant Surgeon and the Medical Director of the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway - the post is a joint appointment with NHS Western Isles.

He said: " Remote and rural medicine is something special within the Scottish health service. It´s not diluting what goes on in big urban centres, it´s specifically different for a variety of reasons. "At the present time there is probably only one surgeon actually trained to work in a remote community. All the rest are people trained for urban centres, myself included. "It´s a different form of practice as a remote and rural practice is much broader-based and there are some procedures which you would train to do for an urban community which you would not want to do in a remote community."

South East Scotland Cancer Network - Navigator Project

Patients and staff from the SE Scotland Cancer Network have attended workshops in May on the University of California's Navigator Project, which provides cancer patients with a trained helper to accompany them on medical visits.

Northern Ireland - Local NHS News

Sperrin Lakeland HSS Trust - Clinical Governance Support Report

Chief Executive, Hugh Mills, has resigned following a report from the NHS Clinical Governance Support Team on the Trust's acute hospital services. The report was commissioned by the Trust in early 2005, and it has highlighted a series of shortcomings in the Tyrone County Hospital and Erne Hospital in Enniskillen. Sperrin Lakeland Trust Medical Director, Dr Diana Cody, has been speaking on behalf of the Trust since Mr Mills' resignation. A meeting of officials from the Department of Health and the Western Health Board with doctors and managers from the Trust is preparing an action plan which will be presented at a full board meeting on 16th June.

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