MHM March 2010 - West London Mental Health NHS Trust

New primary healthcare service forWest London ForensicBroadmoor facilities team includes: Eileen Slater, Jill Sharman, Clay Ryan, Jacqui Trueman, Dawn Howcroft, Alan Lane, Belinda Huse, Katrina Elder and Claire Webb.The Changing Face ofEstates and FacilitiesReport from Barbara Wood, Director of Estates and FacilitiesOver the past year we have beenmaking significant changes in ourdepartment to enable us to offerthe highest levels of service possibleto patients and staff across theTrust. We still have lots more workto do, but this is a summary of thehighlights so far.Last year, at Broadmoor Hospital,we set up our Estates and FacilitiesModernisation Group. This groupwas established to bring together, staffside representatives, managementand clinical staff to jointly takeforward the modernisation of theE & F Department. As a result ofthis group we have made significantchanges to the maintenance anddomestic departments so thatwe are now providing high quality,responsive services to the wholehospital. The domestic departmentstructure is now based on teamsat ward level managed locally byFacilities Coordinators to ensurewe respond to the needs of thepatients and provide leadership to theteams to ensure there is a consistentfocus on performance. We will bedeveloping performance indicatorsto demonstrate our intention tocontinually improve standards.All of our Broadmoor domesticstaff will be undertaking a nationallyrecognised cleanliness qualificationover the next few months so thatstandards of cleanliness and infectioncontrol are brought in line with10 MENTALHEALTHMATTERSthe NPSA National Standards ofCleanliness.A great deal of change has also beenhappening at the London end ofthe Trust too. For example, in Ealingwe’ve introduced E & F BuildingCo-ordinators who are responsiblefor managing maintenance andminor new works. There are fourco-ordinators who each haveresponsibility for a particular areaand they are the first port of callif anything goes wrong. They workclosely with clinical staff to assess theirmaintenance needs and organisefor the appropriate works to becarried out. The value of this rolewas recently demonstrated by theco-ordination of over 1,000 piecesof work in six weeks within JohnConnoly Wing to improve the patientenvironment.In addition to the BuildingCoordinators, the Estates & FacilitiesTeam can now be identified bytheir distinctive blue jackets whichdifferentiate them from the othercontractors operating on the Ealingsite (modelled on the “Green Men”of Broadmoor).John Scully, Trade Supervisor, Terry Sandford andBertie Nota, Maintenance Coordinators.If you have suggestions forfurther improvements youwould like to see please contactBarbara.wood@wlmht.nhs.ukThe Housekeeper role was piloted inEaling last year and through audit weknow their role is making a difference.They are a first port of call for wardmanagers when something goeswrong on a ward and are responsiblefor making sure all estates and facilitiesissues are dealt with in their areaquickly.The Environmental HealthOfficers from the London Boroughof Ealing recently welcomed thepositive impact these postholdershave had on the wards.Domestic staff in all of the LondonSDUs have been trained to the newNational Standards of Cleanliness,they have better equipment thanbefore and we have enhanced thecleaning products they are using.We have also been working withan external agency to deep cleanall of our inpatient areas, and werecommended recently by the CQCfor the difference this is making to theexperiences of patients on our wards.We will also soon be introducing anew hand held auditing tool whichwill help audit levels of cleanliness onthe wards, to help us identify areaswhich are not being cleaned properlyso we can take action to put it right.These hand held audit tools will alsogather patient feedback on their wardenvironment helping us to deliver apatient focused service. Staff are alsotaking a real pride in their improvedenvironments and E & F services havenever been busier!In collaboration with Harmoni for Health,the West London Forensic Service hasestablished a new and comprehensiveprimary health care service which cameinto operation at the start of February. Itis based in the Tony Hillis wing at Ealing inwhat used to be Baron 2 ward.Every inpatient in the SDU now has quick and easyaccess to a full range of primary care services as theywould if they were living in the community.A patient in Tony Hillis wing said: “The clinic will make itmuch quicker for us to see a GP and it will save lots oftime on the wards, as we’re all escorted to appointments.Before we had to go to Ealing Hospital, so this newarrangement will make a real difference. The waiting areais also much better in the new clinic.”The clinic will be run by a GP and nurse team, with visitsfrom other health professionals including a chiropodist,optician, physiotherapist, dietitian and pharmacist. Clinicswill be held in three primary care suites situated ineach secure building on the Ealing site. The suites arethe Primary Healthcare Centre in the Tony Hillis Wing,Orchard Primary Healthcare Centre and the RainbowPrimary Health Centre (RSU). The service will alsoextend to the wards in the event of patients being too illto attend a clinic.Physical healthcare trainingStaff from Ealing and Hammersmith& Fulham SDUs recently attended‘The Psychological Aspects ofPhysical Illness’, a health psychologyin- service training programme tohelp them become more aware andknowledgeable about physical healthproblems amongst our service users.Dr Pooja Sharma, Chartered ClinicalPsychologist who organised thistraining programme says: “It has beena very useful learning experiencefor the staff who have been able toattend these sessions and helps us asprofessionals use this knowledge inour clinical practise.”Members of the primary care team, from the left: Gina Hillis, SeniorNurse Manager and GPs, Dr Naz Asghar and Dr James Whitticase.Gina Hillis, Senior Nurse Manager says: “I am reallyexcited to be working in this new service which islong overdue. Our patients need to have easy accessto primary care, as their physical health is oftencompromised due to the effects of the medicines theyare on, the repetitive nature of their diets and a lack ofexercise. We are providing this new service to patients,to help aid their recovery and improve the quality oftheir lives.”For more informationcall x2220 (020 8483 2220)From the left (front row) Dr Sarwat Nauroze, Dr Urmila Pillay, Prof John Weinman, Dr Pooja Sharma,Nuria Bara-Carril and Dr Yvonne McCulloch. (Middle) Dr Abel Koshy, Richard McLeod, Angela Manning, DrManisha Desai, Dr Kushangi Patel and Anupama Sekhar. ( Back) Tara-Jane Clark and Mishael Soremekun.MENTALHEALTHMATTERS11