If you use a wheelchair, or other social care equipment, the local NHS wants to hear from you at a special event this month.
Health and social care equipment includes mobility and communication aids that help to support adults and children to live independently at home. Examples include shower chairs, perching stools, kettle tippers, pressure relieving mattresses, wheelchairs, etc.
NHS Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group (HRW CCG) are working with other local CCGs and North Yorkshire County Council to gather opinions of local health and social care equipment users to help shape future services.
Dr Charles Parker, HRW CCG Clinical Chair and local GP said: “We want to commission services that are driven by the needs of local people and the views and experiences of service users and patients are fundamental to achieving this.
“CCGs in North Yorkshire and its County Council partners are working together to commission improved equipment and wheelchair services. A series of drop-in sessions in December 2015 and January 2016 have been created to take place across North Yorkshire. We are asking local service users to drop-in and share their views. There is no need to book, just come along.
“For people who are unable to attend the drop-in sessions we have created a survey – this means that everyone has an opportunity to have their say, be it face to face or sharing their views through a series of survey questions.”
Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is the organisation with responsibility for the planning and purchasing of the vast majority of health services across the area. This includes hospital care, mental health and community services.It is a group of 22 GP practices serving a population of around 142,000 people.
The video above shows reaction from people attending their AGM in Richmond.
If you need a doctor out of hours, then don’t go down to the Catterick hospital – the service is closed after dodgy lighting was discovered there which makes it an unsafe place to work.
The following media statement has been issued:
Catterick GP Out of Hours service to temporarily move to Northallerton
The GP Out of Hours service in Catterick, which is run out of part of the Duchess of Kent Barracks at Catterick Garrison, will temporarily move as of 18:00 on Friday 24 October 2014 to the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton.
This move follows a fire risk assessment at the Barracks which stated that the majority of the emergency lighting in the building is substandard and therefore the building is unsafe to use. The assessment was carried out by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), which is responsible for building, maintaining and servicing armed forces buildings.
Jo Harding, Lead Nurse at Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group which commissions the service, said:
“The Out of Hours service is where people who telephone their GP surgery are directed to when their surgery is closed. It runs from 18:00-8:00 on weekdays and all day and night at weekends and on bank holidays. Members of the public should continue to call NHS 111for advice in a non-emergency situation.
“Following this unanticipated development, we are currently working hard with Harrogate & District NHS Foundation Trust, the providers of the service, to re-establish, as soon as possible, a long-term safe solution in the Richmond area (which includes Catterick and Colburn).
“In the short term, alternative arrangements have been made at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, where an Out of Hours service already operates. Staff who are usually based at the Duchess of Kent Barracks will work from the Friarage. Home visits are unaffected and will still be carried out as appropriate.
“We fully appreciate that the extra distance that patients will have to travel to Northallerton may be an issue for some people. If patients are not able to make their own way to the Friarage Hospital, either by driving themselves or being driven by a relative or friend, then arrangements will be made at no cost to them.”
Richmondshire District Council’s campaign against the downgrading of key maternity and children’s services cost £11,000 – figures just released reveal.
At Thursday’s meeting of the corporate board, councillors will be told that the campaign cost £10,715.55 – this covered travel and accommodation expenses as well as an £8,500 fee for the services of a QC.
Councillor John Blackie will tell members that, although the fight had ultimately been unsuccessful, it had been vital to go the extra mile and stand up to be counted for the residents of the district.
The fight involved visits by Cllr. Blackie to other hospitals across the country faced with the same issues of rurality as Richmondshire, especially the difficulties presented by the distance from accessing key services to meet unplanned, urgent and immediate healthcare needs. When the campaign failed to change the minds of the CCG it was then referred twice to the Secretary of State for Health, who eventually sided with the local NHS. Following his decision, councillors sanctioned consultation with a leading QC in NHS issues to see if there were grounds to bring a legal challenge.
Despite the lack of success, Cllr Blackie said he still believed the money was ‘very well spent’.
“We remain very disappointed in the CCG’s decision – it threatens the safety of mothers-to-be, their babies, and children who fall unwell without warning. The communities I visited in my review of small hospitals are so lucky to have the dedication of all involved to retain these hugely important services in their local hospitals, a commitment sadly not shared by our local NHS.”
However, although a judicial review into the CCG’s decision was considered by the QC unlikely to be successful, and the costs if it failed would have been in six figures, the council has vowed to continue its fight to maintain a range of key healthcare services for people living in Richmondshire.
Cllr Blackie added: “We have adopted a twin track approach which means low risk mothers-to-be can be cared for by the fine team of midwives at the Friarage, whilst those who need or worry that they might need consultants on hand can be looked after at the Darlington Memorial Hospital. The thought of 60 mile journeys from the Dales in hostile weather to give birth in Middlesbrough simply does not bear thinking about, but without these two facilities continuing it will become a reality.”
What do you think? Money well spent? Unlikely to ever succeed? Whatever your view, feel free to share it via the comments below.
* The Yorkshire Post is to hold a public debate on the future of NHS care in the region, including this decision later this momth.The event will be held at the Cedar Court Hotel, Huddersfield, on Monday, September 22, at 6pm.
Democracy campaigners 38 Degrees are calling on Richmond residents to lobby our local MP to take a stand against a new clause being put before the House of Commons.
The Hospital Closure Clause, also referred to as clause 119, was inserted into the bill after health secretary Jeremy Hunt was told by the court of appeal last year that he had acted beyond his authority in attempting to cut emergency and maternity services at Lewisham hospital in south London.
The leaflet says: “Your MP has gained local popularity by saying he supports the Friarage Hospital. So it should be possible to persuade him to vote against the new law.
“William Hague MP will be under pressure to side with the government. Let’s show him that local people won’t stand for a law that threatens our valuable hospital services.”
38 Degrees is one of the UK’s biggest campaigning communities, with more than one million members. Members share a non-party political set of values; to defend fairness, protect rights, promote peace, preserve the planet and deepen democracy.
Jo Harding and William Hague listen to public concerns
It was interesting to see the turnout for last night’s rural healthcare debate in the town hall – largely people who’d made the trip into Richmond from the more remote central and upper Dales areas of the district.
Interesting but, of course, not surprising, given they have particular issues facing them in the current re-organisation of the NHS – not least the challenge of retaining of GPs in practices which face losing central government funding and so may become unviable in the not too distant future.
But many other issues raised during the session hosted by William Hague MP showed up some concerns of wider interest, issues that are just as relevant whether you live in the town or up the dale.
The first can probably be most easily illustrated with this diagram. Quite simply, where would you rather be rushed to in an ambulance or make the journey to for an outpatient appointment?
But the choice isn’t as simple as it first appears. The significantly closer Darlington hospital sits within a different administrative area and so patients’ records might not be made available in what’s seen as across a border (which most of us can’t see).
The experiences of two Swaledale residents who had been taken to Darlington hospital for treatment was relayed at the meeting and showed up this hidden danger of the necessary proceedures for sharing patient data not being in place.
The meeting heard the two had been admitted but their records couldn’t be shared so their relatives had to piece together their previous medical histories for doctors who were, to all intents and purposes, left treating them with no prior knowledge.
It was left to us all to imagine just how dangerous that could be in the case of people suffering life-threatening illnesses, on long-term medication and even those without relative advocates to assist them.
And talking of ambulances……
On the panel, Jo Harding, lead nurse and senior delivery manager, and Dr Mark Hodgson, GP and governing body member, both of the Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group gave the presentation which you can listen to above.
One of the issues which it touches upon is the organisation’s poor record in ambulance arrival times.
The nationally set target says 75% should get there within eight mins but Ms Harding said that target hadn’t been achieved for a decade.
In a bid to address this problem, she said that an arrangement had been made with the Co-op store to have an ambulance responder based there in order to save time at the traffic lights.
This, she said, could potentially save one or two minutes of potentially life-saving time.
Various issues around that move weren’t raised at the meeting – what sort of equipment does the ‘responder’ carry? Why are ambulances waiting at lights at all? And crucially, what data has the decision been based on in terms of patient outcome if treated by a responder more quickly compared to waiting for a full ambulance a few minutes later?
The scheme only started last month so perhaps those are the questions for any future consultation. (Interested to hear your thoughts on this in the comments below as this also became quite a talking point on Twitter last night.)
But what about The Friarage…..
One of the biggest hospital issues locally is the proposed downgrading of services at The Friarage. Although William Hague touched on this in his opening remarks, which you can hear in the video above, debate on the topic was effectively taken off the table with the firm statements from the panel that the consultation period is over. We’ll have to wait until later this month to hear the next stage of that consultation.
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