Military Cross Award for Naval Medical Assistant Kate Nesbitt

NEWS FROM AROUND THE TRUST
Learning Disabilities Patients
Recent reports by Mencap in 2007, ‘Death by Indifference’
and the report by the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman report in March 2009, ‘Six lives: the provision
of public services to people with earning disabilities’ has
led to an increased awareness across the Trust about the
care that we deliver to this group of vulnerable patients.
Kevin Marsh, Deputy Director of Nursing, has been leading
a multi-disciplinary group looking at the policy for patients
within the Trust with learning disabilities. This group has
included teams from the community, care providers and carers.
The policy is now complete and has been cascaded to all
departments ensuring that these patients are highlighted to
Kevin on their admission, allowing appropriate support to be
given to the patient, their carers and the clinical teams caring
for them. This has led to an improved patient experience for
this group of vulnerable adults.
The exciting news is that as a result of this group being formed,
funding has been received for a learning disability nurse
specialist to be based in the Trust to focus on this vulnerable
group of
patients and
the care they
need both in
hospital and
the community.
This post
has been
successfully
filled and
Kate Banforth
started in post
on November
9th, joined by
Lesley Smith
who has been transferred from NHS Plymouth. Please contact
Kevin Marsh or Linda Field (pictured) for further information if
you are interested in finding out more.
An event to officially launch this new service has been planned
for December 2nd – so please put this in your diaries.
Devon Child Health moves into the 21st Century
Plymouth’s Child Health Information Department, based at
the Central Records Library, Bush Park, provides one of
the most fundamental and well appreciated NHS services.
They are one of four such departments that work closely
together across Devon.
This is a busy department. Since 1979 they have managed the
recording of all planned health contact, from birth to aged 19,
including the recording, scheduling and progress monitoring of
vaccinations and immunisations for nearly two million children
across all the GP practices and schools in Plymouth and South
West Devon. This service will have impacted on nearly every
family in the area.
About a year ago, all four of the departments were faced with
the prospect of their current computer systems being unable
to function. The ‘Swift’ System, purchased in 1980, used black
and white screens and didn’t even work with a mouse! In
response to this, PCTs in Devon were brought together to fund
a much needed and anticipated upgrade of the database and
system. This innovative approach combines data from across
Devon’s four separate child health information departments into
a single database for the first time, giving improved public health
monitoring and planning for the whole county.
Make no mistake, this first stage was no small project to
plan, and work now continues to ensure the safe transfer,
co-ordination and implementation across four acute trusts whilst
all departments remain open throughout.
Andy Vickers, the Devon Programme Manager, said: “As with
Apollo 13, failure here wasn’t an option and everyone who has
been involved in the Plymouth upgrade is to be congratulated
for their commitment and hard work.”
Catherine Murphy, Project Manager, has had her work cut out
to plan and co ordinate the smooth switchover of the multiple
sites. In mid September, Plymouth was the first site to go live
and suppliers and users alike have written to thank the local
team for their efforts in ensuring the upgrade (which took place
across one weekend) went as smoothly as it did. This is an NHS
IT project that is currently on budget and on time.
4
Work is already underway in the remaining three areas. Torbay will
be the next to implement the new system in mid November, Exeter
in January 2010 and last, but not least, Barnstaple will go live at the
end of March. The Plymouth team will support their colleagues on
the other sites, as they become “live” on the new system.
Now that all the stress and tension of the switchover is over,
Katharine Jacobs, Manager of the Plymouth service said: “This
long awaited replacement system has been implemented with
the minimum of fuss. This is due to the huge amount of planning
and work carried out by the project implementation team, the
staff here at Plymouth and the software suppliers, McKesson”.
The Child Health team now have the chance to continue to provide
their essential service and to use some of that new technology to
develop services to benefit GP Practices, Public Health and the
wider health community well into the coming decade.
Autumn 2009 Cascade