Hertfordshire Health Matters

Friday 19 July 2019

CCG rated outstanding for the third time

East and North Hertfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), the NHS organisation which plans, pays for and monitors health services for local people, has again been rated as ‘outstanding’ by NHS England.

In the latest national assessments for 2018/19, the CCG was awarded this top rating for the third year in a row, one of only nine CCGs across the country to achieve this.

Highlighted for particular praise was the CCG’s commitment to partnership working and the leadership role it plays with other NHS organisations in Hertfordshire.

Dr Prag Moodley, GP in Stevenage and Chair of East and North Hertfordshire CCG said: “I’m very proud that our organisation has once again been rated so highly. There are just a handful of CCGs across the country which have been judged to be ‘outstanding’ three years in a row, so it’s an achievement that I would like to publicly thank our team, our patient volunteers, GPs and practice staff for.”

Some of the CCG’s key achievements during the past year include:

• supporting all GP practices to offer extra routine and urgent appointments in the evenings and at weekends. This gives those who are not able to get to their GP surgery during ‘working hours’, the option to see a GP or other health professional at a more convenient time for them. We collected the views of more than 16,000 to help us plan the service
• helping local urgent and emergency care services manage additional winter pressures. For the first time there was a single winter plan covering all the NHS organisations in the STP area. This agreement is important as it enabled hospitals to help each other in times when areas were very busy.
• expanding the range of experts able to see patients in GP surgeries. Physiotherapists, pharmacists and paramedics are now working alongside doctors, nurses and healthcare assistants in many of our practices, making it easier for patients to see a health professional with the right skills quickly
• helping keep frail and elderly people living safely and independently in their homes through four ‘early intervention vehicles’ which attend some calls made to 999
• launching a new diabetes patient education programme to give support to patients newly diagnosed with Type 2
• enabling patients get home from hospital more quickly and start their recovery at home thanks to the ‘discharge home to assess’ team
• supporting a number of our GP practices to either move to new premises or refurbish current ones
• trialing a new way to diagnose autism more quickly, working with families and Hertfordshire County Council to try out a new way of diagnosing autism.

Beverley Flowers, Chief Executive of East and North Hertfordshire CCG said: “It is a pleasure to lead an organisation which is committed to improving care for the patients it serves.

“None of what we do would be possible without the tremendous commitment of health and care staff. Again and again, our GPs and staff across the NHS rise to the challenge and deliver great care for their patients. As a CCG we are proud to be rated as ‘outstanding’ again and we will continue to strive to ensure all our patients have the best quality care.”

Across England, NHS, social care organisations and local councils are working together more closely to deliver more effective, joined-up and affordable services as part of Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs).

In addition to her role at the CCG; Beverley was recently appointed alongside Iain MacBeath, Director of Adult Care Services at Hertfordshire County Council to jointly head up the Hertfordshire and West Essex STP.

Beverley added: “Limited resources and increasing levels of need mean that health and social care services in our area are continuously challenged to keep up with demand. This year, we have worked even more closely with health and social care colleagues across Hertfordshire and west Essex to make best use of clinical staff and resources and enable our local communities to make healthier choices and live as active, engaged and independent lives for as long as they can.”

Hertfordshire Health Walks

• health walk leader training
• pulling ragwort and thistles on the moor
• nature’s first aid kit, guided walk
• Teddy bears' picnic
• live in the park: free summer activities.

Review into Mount Vernon Cancer Centre -
give your views

The public are being asked for their views as part of a review into the services at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre.

The latest engagement event is being held on Tuesday (23 July) at:
Wellcome Collection
183 Euston Road
The Burroughs Room
London NW1 2BE.

To book a place, visit the Eventbrite website.

Run by East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust and delivered from a North Middlesex site managed by the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the stand-alone cancer centre primarily serves a population of more than two million people in four areas including Hertfordshire, and a small number of patients using the service from elsewhere.

The centre provides outpatient chemotherapy, nuclear medicine, brachytherapy and haematology as well as radiotherapy for these populations. There are also inpatient and ambulatory wards.

The NHS in the East of England and North London are working together on the review which involves Mount Vernon, other local hospitals and commissioners, and Cancer Alliances to look at meeting the needs of local people.  Some of the buildings are not in a good state of repair, and there are a number of concerns about the long-term clinical sustainability of the cancer centre. As well as ageing buildings, there are limited support facilities on site. For example, there are no high dependency or intensive care beds, so patients whose condition deteriorates during their treatment have to be sent by ambulance to Watford General Hospital. 

Talk to the NHS about using the Urgent Care Centre in Welwyn Garden City overnight 

Thank you to everyone who has given their feedback on the proposal to change the opening hours at the Urgent Care Centre for minor injuries and minor illness at the New QEII Hospital in Welwyn Garden City, there's still plenty of time.

NHS East and North Hertfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is proposing to close the centre between 10pm and 8am, when it is used infrequently. During these quieter overnight hours, highly skilled nursing staff could instead support seriously ill patients with a life-threatening condition at the A&E service at the Lister Hospital, Stevenage.

Hertfordshire residents can get advice and medical help outside normal GP surgery hours by calling or going online to NHS 111. The improved 111 service now offers palliative care, pharmacy, mental health and dentistry advice and can book you an urgent overnight GP appointment if you need one. The CCG has also worked with GP practices across our area to introduce evening and weekend appointments through the ‘extended access’ scheme. This enables patients to book either a routine or an urgent appointment to see a GP or practice nurse from 8am-8pm on weekdays, from 8am-4pm on Saturdays, and 8am-12pm on Sundays.

A series of public drop-in events are being held during the day, in the evenings and at weekends, giving residents a chance to discuss the overnight closure proposal with staff from the CCG and East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust (ENHT). The dates, times and locations are posted in 'Newsletters and events' section further down in Hertfordshire Health Matters.

Find out more at https://qeiiucc.enhertsccg.nhs.uk. Paper copies of the survey are available on request.

LOCAL NEWS week ending 14 July

Some of our area's outlets covered a range of health matters in the past week. Click on the links to take you to their home pages where you can search for health news.

The Comet

Herts Advertiser

Welwyn Hatfield Times

Watford Observer