Copy
To view images, click download images in this browser above
View this email in your browser

Welcome to the Healthwatch Rochdale e-Bulletin

Take a look at this NEW video to find out more about Healthwatch Rochdale

Healthwatch Rochdale's latest e-bulletin includes the local Health and Social Care news within the Rochdale Borough, as well as a brief update of what we have been up to in the month of March. 

Take a look at Healthwatch Rochdale's Activity Report for a full update on what we have been up to!

Take a look at Healthwatch Rochdale's latest Newsletter.


Copies of the booklet are to be given to parents of new-borns at their first health visitor assessment, and to parents of babies and toddlers up to two years old at their follow-up healthcare visits. Parents attending the children’s community nursing service will also be given a copy. If you aren’t offered one, ask for a copy. 

It’s is part of HMR CCG’s work towards supporting the Rochdale Borough Children and Young People’s Partnership’s aim to make sure all Rochdale children and young people achieve their full potential.

All the content is clinically approved and taken from a range of reputable national sources, including National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance, the Department of Health, and NHS Choices (www.nhs.uk).

Content covers the first months of a baby’s life, childhood injuries, general wellbeing, and local services, with topics ranging from feeding your baby, coughs, colds, earaches and fever, to safety in the home and emotional wellbeing.

Click here to go to our microsite where you can see all the information contained within the booklet. There’s also a PDF of the booklet that you can download.

NHS HMR CCG has produced a 60-page booklet featuring tips and advice about a range of common childhood illnesses and general wellbeing – which you can also view online.

 

It's also available as an app for android and iPhones – search ‘Child Health HMR’.

 


Early Break has launched a brand new, educational microsite, Don’t Be A Zombie!

Don’t Be A Zombie is an interactive microsite aimed at educating and informing young people around the harms and issues associated with drug and alcohol misuse.  It has been developed by Early Break who has worked closely with Rochdale Council and Make Agency to bring harm reduction messages to young people around drugs and alcohol.

The site features information and advice on a whole host of substances ranging from alcohol and cannabis to heroin and amphetamine. The information includes various drugs laws and legalities, prices, slang names, impact on physical and mental health and harm reduction messages.
There is also a “Dezombify Me” section which provides self-help documents and leaflets.

Vicky Maloney, Chief Executive Officer at Early Break said “We were keen to embrace and build on the opportunities afforded by digital health related media. As a young person’s service we felt there was a clear gap in the market for a new site which offered advice, information and support to young people in a way that was visually engaging, evidence based and memorable.”

Take a look at www.dontbeazombie.co.uk 

 
New bedside pressure monitoring system on trial at Trust
 

THE Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is trialling a new bedside pressure monitoring device which has the potential to significantly reduce the incidence of pressure ulcers (bed sores) in patients.

The system on trial at Ward F10 General Medicine at The Royal Oldham Hospital uses a pressure sensing mat filled with thousands of tiny sensors to show where patients are experiencing areas of high pressure when laying and resting in bed. This information is sent to a monitor attached to the mat which shows areas of high pressure as red and orange, and lower pressure areas as green and blue.

Staff and carers can reposition the patient using small ‘micro-movements’ to reduce pressures dramatically, which is particularly effective for people where full body repositioning or even turning may be restricted.

Alarms can also be set as reminders for carers to check if a patient needs repositioning or not.

The Monitor Alert Protect (M.A.P) system on trial is produced by Sidhil and costs in the region of £5,000. Only two other Trusts in the country use the system at present. The open-ended trial is initially running for two months, during which time the Trust will assess its effectiveness.

If the Pennine Acute Trust, which manages The Royal Oldham Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, Rochdale Infirmary and community services, does decide to purchase the equipment, it would be used for training purposes and on high risk patients.

Reducing the incidence of pressure ulcers plays a vital role in improving outcomes for individuals as well as reducing the costs associated with treatment.

Figures from Health Service Monitor in 2013 suggest that the prevalence rate of pressure ulcers in healthcare environments is 4.7%. Quite apart from the unnecessary suffering caused, the daily costs of treating a pressure ulcer are estimated to range from £43 to £374.

Charlotte Dent, Quality Matron for Medicine at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said:

“Trialling this new high tech piece of equipment is exciting and highlights our team approach at The Royal Oldham Hospital to consistently use best practice to improve patient care. We are continually striving to reduce hospital harms to our patients and this is seen in the enthusiasm the team on ward F10 have by showing their commitment to reducing pressure ulcers and embracing the evaluation of the MAP system.”

GM Health & Social Care Devolution HD

Devolution has the potential to completely transform Greater Manchester’s health and social care system. This video explains how and why services will change from April 2016 as the NHS and local councils work in partnership to transform the lives of Greater Manchester’s 2.8 million residents.  
 
#GMDevo Visit http://gmhealthandsocialcaredevo.org.uk/ for more information
 
 
Kooth was developed to provide PCTs, local authorities and GPs with the resource, expertise and support to provide help to young people most at risk and crucially, prevent them from entering the care system. It engages with hard-to-reach young people in a way that other services can't.

Kooth provides users with a free, confidential, safe and above all anonymous way to ask for help. It's currently available to over half a million 11-25 year olds in England and Wales and is now operational in 19 geographical areas.

Kooth is a transformational lifeline that has successfully helped and continues to reach the very vulnerable, many of whom would never have access to face-to-face counselling.
 
For more information on Kooth visit https://www.kooth.com/

 

Visit a GP or Nurse in the evening at the weekend or on a bank holiday

A new campaign in Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale is reminding patients they can book GP and nurse appointments in the evenings, at weekends and on bank holidays. Practices are displaying materials promoting the opening hours of the extended hours hubs as well as the booking line telephone number.

Patients have been able to book to see a GP or nurse at four extended hours hubs across the borough, since early December 2015. The extended hours scheme is a not a walk-in service and is for non-urgent and routine appointments which include appointments for cervical smears, blood pressure checks and spirometry (breathing test) . Patients can book in advance by contacting their own GP surgery or by ringing the Central Booking Service on 0161 763 8292 and can be booked up to 14 days in advance.

Appointments can be booked between the hours of  6.30pm-9pm on weekdays, 8am – 6pm Saturdays and Bank Holidays and between 10am – 1pm on Sundays. Patients can book appointments at any of the four hubs, currently based at the following locations: Birtle View Medical Practice, Heywood, Peterloo Medical Centre, Middleton, Kingsway Medical Practice, Rochdale and Littleborough Health Centre, Rochdale.

Dr Chris Duffy, Chair of HMR CCG said “ We are extremely pleased that patients are now benefitting from more accessible GP services. We know that people struggle to fit in GP appointments with their busy family commitments and work schedules and by offering these out of hours appointments we can make it easier for people to see a GP at a more convenient time to suit them.”  

The hubs are being run to improve access to GP appointments and relieve pressure on other NHS services. The appointments are being run as a  pilot until March 2017 at which point the scheme will be reviewed and future models considered.

 

For more information, visit: http://www.gpcareservices.co.uk/thereforyou/

Three million patients benefit from new innovations in pioneering NHS programme

Three million patients have begun to access new apps, safety devices, on-line networks, and a host of other new technologies and services during the first nine months of a pioneering NHS programme.

68 NHS organisations are using one or more of 17 new innovations which aim to improve care by, for example, reducing clinical incidents, helping people self-care and linking up patients with others or with research schemes.

The NHS Innovation Accelerator programme was launched last year to help introduce new innovations into the NHS and its success after just nine months was highlighted at the UK eHealth Week conference this week (Weds 20th).

Seventeen Fellows, each representing an evidence-based innovation, are being supported to take their innovative technology or service to an increasing number of patients at a greater pace in a bid to improve patient care and help put the NHS on a financially sustainable footing.

The Fellows have, to date, raised more than £8m from external sources, an eight fold increase of the Accelerator’s initial investment of £1m. They have received mentorship by high profile leaders in healthcare and access to peer to peer support and learning events.  NHS England has helped unblock systemic barriers to spreading innovation and the country’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks have assisted in getting them adopted into clinical practice.

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England’s Medical Director, said: “There is a real need across the NHS to speed up the process of innovation – from initial invention right through to mass uptake of the most successful across the health and care system. Together with their mentors, who are some of the most high-profile leaders in England, the innovation fellows will provide models and lessons for us all in how to do that.”

The NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) is a fellowship programme being delivered collaboratively by NHS England, UCLPartnersThe Health Foundation and with the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs).

To read more click here 

Putting patients, excellence and experience at the heart of care
 

NICE has updated its guidelines pages to explain how they should be used in offering patients and service users the best care.

The new wording explains that guidelines should be taken fully into account but that the patient, or person receiving care, should be at the heart of decision-making. It also emphasises the importance of a clinician’s expertise and judgement.

The change is in response to conversations NICE has been having with people – including GPs. The new wording reflects NICE’s broader responsibilities within health and social care.

Professor David Haslam, the chair of NICE,  explained in a blog post that the new text will “help clinicians to use NICE guidance with confidence – balancing their experience, the needs and wishes of the patient, and gold-standard evidence-based recommendations”.

The wording is now more prominent within a blue box on the overview page of the guidance. It was previously found only in the ‘About this guideline’ section.

CQC’s first round of acute hospital inspections completed on schedule

CQC has completed its comprehensive inspection programme of all 154 acute NHS trusts in England this month as planned.

Already the CQC have seen clear improvements in the quality and safety of care with 11 NHS trusts previously subject to special measures coming out of the regime as a result of the progress they have identified when the CQC have inspected them again.

The inspections they have carried out so far are delivering a deeper insight into the quality and safety of services than ever before and are helping to drive improvements so that patients get better care.

Now that the CQC have inspected all acute NHS trusts we have a baseline for quality which they will use to feed into there future approach to regulation of the sector. The remaining inspection reports and ratings will be published within the next few months and the CQC will be pulling together an analysis of the findings to date later in the summer.

For information about what our inspections have allowed us to find out and enable within the NHS, please read the latest State of Care report.

Healthwatch Rochdale LTD. Registered Company Number: 08429721
Copyright © 2016 Healthwatch Rochdale, All rights reserved.


 

 
Facebook
Twitter
Website
LinkedIn






This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences
Healthwatch Rochdale · 1-2 Hunters Lane · Rochdale · Manchester, Lancashire OL16 1YL · United Kingdom

Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp