Now I can tell you!

I am now a GP Board Member of Wakefield Alliance - the Clinical Commissioning Group responsible for commissioning services for our patients. Just over a week ago I went to a top secret meeting with other board members from Wakefield Alliance and staff from Mid Yorks Hospital Trust. The meeting was to tell the Board about Mid Yorks plans for reshuffling hospital services across Wakefield, Pontefract and Dewsbury.

They are only just at the beginning of this project. They need to reshuffle their services because they need to substantially cut their budget over the next two years as well as continue to meet access targets (for patients referred for treatment and patients in A&E) and continue to improve the clinical quality of the services they provide - quite a few plates to juggle and keep in the air at the same time!

The meeting I went to outlined some of the criteria against which any changes options would be assessed. Their were a few things that the changes must do. The changes must make the savings they need to achieve and Pinderfields will remain the trauma centre for Trust. Aside from these givens, they had identified nine other non financial criteria. These included better clinical outcomes, delivering the 18 week to treatment target and of course 'safe an appropriate patient travelling times'.

The Trust is committed to continuing to run Out Patient and Diagnostic Services from all three sites but it is looking at centralising other services. But some of the options may mean that patients in Normanton may have to go to the Dewsbury for surgery (15 miles) instead of Pinderfields (6 miles). I got the impression that clinical safety and improvement trumped short travel times! I strongly believe that we need a clinically safe and financially viable local Trust so that my patients do not have to travel out of the area for emergency and routine treatments. They only way this is going to happen is if things are centralised and this will inevitably mean more travel for some patients and their relatives.

If you have any comments to make this then please let me know at DrBrown@GP-B87039.nhs.uk.

And of course I can break the promise to keep things secret now because this has been reported at the Trusts last board meeting which was open to the public and was reported in Fridays Wakefield Express - click here to read more!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kings Medical Practice - Privacy Notice

How we use your information This privacy notice explains why the Kings Medical Practice collects information about you, and how that information may be used.  As data controllers, GPs have fair processing responsibilities under the Data Protection Act 1998.  This means ensuring that your personal confidential data (PCD) is handled in ways that are safe, transparent and what you would reasonably expect.  The Health and Social Care Act 2012 changed the way that personal confidential data is processed. Therefore it is important that patients are made aware of, and understand these changes and that you have an opportunity to object if you so wish and that you know how to do so. Health care professionals maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received within the NHS (e.g. NHS Hospital Trust, GP Surgery, Walk-in clinic, etc.).  These records help to provide the best possible healthcare. NHS health records may be processed electronically, on
Read more

Online services

The practice has recently extended the number of Online services that we have available. The Online services are available via a link from our website, click here or via the SystmOnline app from either the Apple App Store for iPhones and iPads or from Google Play Store for phones and tablets running the Android operating system. Not all the services that you can access via the website are available via the app though. SystmOnline is a web based service that is linked to the practice clinical record system, SystmOne. SystmOnline will allow you to: manage appointments - book, change and cancel view/request prescriptions add/change contact details send a registration request request access to your SystmOne detailed patient record and you can then view an audit of who has accessed your patient record view your medical summary and/or detailed patient record via SystmOnline view details of patholog
Read more

Rules for handling confidential information

The practice handles confidential health information and we have to ensure that it is held securely and shared appropriately. A number of laws, principles and obligations govern how we should handle this information. But they have grown increasingly complicated to understand and this has sometimes made it hard for staff to make clear decisions about when they should and should not share confidential information. I am the practice and also NHS Wakefield CCG Caldicott Guardian. It is one of my jobs to ensure that we handle patient confidential information correctly. I went on an update day yesterday for Caldicott Guardian and came across 'A Guide to Confidentiality in Health and Social Care' produced by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. Click here for the link. The guide has a five rules that are very clear and will help staff be clear about how they should protect information and when they can share it. It is also useful for patients because it simply and cl
Read more