Trust Matters Winter 2014

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals

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• WINTER 2014 • VIEW ONLINE AT: www.lancsteachinghospitals.nhs.uk •

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NHS Foundation Trust

SURVEY FEEDBACK What you had to say…

In our last Spring/Summer 2013 Trust Matters magazine, we asked members to complete a survey to help us improve our communication with you. The outcome of the survey showed that 97% of our members felt that Trust Matters is very effective or effective in keeping you informed with what is happening in our local hospitals.

71% of people who completed the survey said that they read “all of it.”

As you can see from the graph, the articles that you are most interested in are about hospital services, our plans and how we are performing so we’ll be keeping you updated on these things in the future.

We did submit planning permission to build a multi-storey car park at Preston a few years ago, but this was rejected by the local council.

However we are hopeful a future application will be more successful.

The customer complaints/ compliments process was also identified, you can find out more information regarding this on page 5 of this magazine.

100%

80%

A number of you raised concerns about car parking.

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0%

How your feedback has made a difference - 55%

Member Events - 56.1%

43.1% Governors -

26%

NHS careers -

Stories about staff - 49.4%

News - 79.9%

Hospital services - 90.3%

20%

How we are performing - 82.5%

However our car parks are physically constrained by our site – both hospitals are in residential areas and we have to bear that in mind.

40%

88.1%

We have a team of car park attendants at both hospitals that do everything they can to help people to park.

60%

Our plans -

We appreciate that difficulties finding a car parking space can cause stress and anxiety which is the last thing patients who are coming for appointments need.

What articles do you find useful? (Please tick all that apply)

Children and Young Persons Bereavement Support Group Almost a year after the Children’s and Young Persons (CAYP) Bereavement Support Group launched it’s been hailed ‘a great success.’

The group was set up in May last year following on from the success of the adult branch, which we launched in 2009.

We realised that those who had lost a loved one from cancer or a long-term condition had several avenues of support open to them, but support for children and young people who are bereaved through sudden and traumatic death, was limited.

CAYP was granted Trust charity status in 2011 and thanks to sponsorship and the hard work of volunteers who have undergone training; the organisation has now been helping young people and their families for the last 12 months and will continue to do so.

Helen Bradley, Bereavement and Donation Co-ordinator and Staff Governor, said: “We wanted to offer an informal bereavement support group that is easily accessible, allowing individuals to share experiences and coping strategies, with the option of one-to-one support if required. There’s no prescriptive package or one-size-fits-all approach to bereavement and support means different things to different people, particularly when it comes to young people. The right support at the right time and in the right context can enable bereaved children to live with their loss and build positive futures.”

CAYP meets on the first Thursday of each month, 6-7:30pm in the Community Learning Centre at PNE football ground.

Financial support is always welcome to help fund the venue and provide materials for the sessions.

Thank you to a local company which provides a lot of our equipment, Leyland Rotary and everyone who has raised money for this valuable service by running marathons or through donations.

If anybody would like to help raise funds please contact

Let’s get

VOTING! It’s that time of year again…

Election fever is upon us!

We have a number of governor vacancies available in both public and staff constituencies. All applications have now been received and candidates will battle it out for a seat on the council of governors.

Governors play a crucial role in representing the views of the public, staff and the wider community. They help shape our future by participating in council of governor meetings. They also run various different sub groups which aim to improve a range of matters such as patient experience.

More recently under new legislation governors have been given greater powers, for example they now have a statutory duty to hold the non-executive directors to account for the performance of the board and also to represent the views of not just the foundation trust members but also those of the wider public.

The Electoral Reform Service is conducting the election process on our behalf. You, our Foundation Trust members are responsible for electing governors.

Voting packs will be dispatched on Tuesday 11 March and you have until Monday 31 March to vote.

Make your vote count!

Helen.Bradley@lthtr.nhs.uk Excellent care with compassion

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A successful Members’ Meeting

Back in September we held our Annual Members Meeting at Preston North End football ground.

It was a great event and more than 100 people showed up, which a fantastic turn out. Many things were discussed, such as the annual report, future plans and changes to the constitution.

Changes to the constitution Last year we undertook a review of our constitution, which is a document that sets out the way that the organisation will operate. All governors, as your elected and appointed representatives, were invited to participate in the review and a number of changes were introduced as a result.

Changes to membership area We deliver healthcare services to the local population of Chorley, South Ribble and Preston, but we also provide services on a much wider scale, across Lancashire and South Cumbria. We have extended our area for foundation trust membership to reflect this.

Changes to constituencies We have also changed the way in which we classify members of our foundation trust.

We used to categorise members as ‘public’, ‘patient’ or ‘staff’ members, but we now only classify members as ‘public’ or ‘staff’.

The change means that all public members will be able to vote for all public governor posts, rather than previously where you were only able to vote for governors in whichever category of membership you were in. This administrative change will not affect how you receive information, or any care that we may provide.

Other changes We have reduced the size of our council of governors in line with emerging best practice.

The significant majority of governors on the revised council are public governors, to ensure your voice is heard.

We have also extended the maximum period that a governor may serve from six years to nine years, although governors are required to stand for re-election every three years.

We also held a question and answer session at the meeting. A lot of questions that had been submitted were answered on the evening and the rest were answered in writing afterwards.

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Here’s a selection of the questions that were askeD The newspapers tell us that many hospitals do not have as many nurses as they should have. Does this apply to Lancashire Teaching Hospitals?

A: Although the number of nurses on duty at any given time may fluctuate due to the needs of the patients they are caring for, we do have established levels of staffing to deliver excellent care. There are times when we may not have this number of nurses, such as in the event of short notice sickness absence, however we undertake an immediate risk assessment of the clinical environment and move staff as appropriate. We also undertaken a robust review of nurse staffing levels each year and make any necessary investment.

Can you confirm if Chorley and District Hospital is not on the list of closures?

A: We can confirm that there are no plans to close Chorley and South Ribble Hospital.

Why are more and more patients being sent to Preston Hospital for X-rays, MRI scans when Chorley and South Ribble Hospital has the facilitites?

A: Patients are not generally transferred from Chorley and South Ribble to Royal Preston Hospital for routine x-rays or MRI scans, because as you rightly note, the facilities are available at Chorley. We do transfer patients for specialised PET-CT (positron emission tomography-computed tomography) scans and this is due to the fact that the scanner at Royal Preston Hospital is the only one in Lancashire.

Given the excellent work carried out at Royal Preston Hospital, in the early detection of bowel cancer through sigmoidoscopy/colonoscopy, is there likely to be increased capacity to carry out operations to meet the apparent increase in demand for sigmoid colectomies and other general surgery?

A: The new screening programme was extremely effective so we have extended this service.

You can see the rest of the questions and answers on our website:

www.lancsteachinghospitals.nhs.uk/membership-events

Monitor announces investigation We have been advised by Monitor, the regulator of health services in England, that it will be conducting an investigation into our performance against two healthcare metrics – the 18-week aggregate referral-totreatment target for admitted patients; and the number of Clostridium difficile infections this year.

Chief Executive Karen Partington, said: “We advised Monitor in November that we would not achieve the 18 week referral to treatment standard for the third consecutive quarter.

We have also reported that we did not meet our challenging target to reduce the number of cases of Clostridium difficile infections.

Last winter our urgent care services experienced intense, growing and unsustainable pressure. To help manage this pressure and make sure patients with urgent needs could receive prompt treatment we postponed a number of elective procedures, and have since found it challenging to meet the 18 week standard for admitted patients.

“In recent years we have made great progress in significantly reducing hospital acquired infections. Despite this good performance and our continued efforts we have exceeded what is a very challenging trajectory for the Clostridium difficile infection year to date.

“We are absolutely committed to providing excellent care with compassion, and will be working closely with Monitor in the coming weeks to share our recovery plans, and make sure we are taking every action possible to deliver timely treatment, and reduce hospital acquired infection.”

Care Quality Commission report A Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) inspection of our hospitals in November found that we have systems in place to manage risks and assure the health, welfare and safety of people who receive care, and that we are protecting patients from infection, however three minor issues were identified at Royal Preston Hospital.

The CQC spoke with 31 patients at Royal Preston Hospital, and 17 patients at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital, and concluded that “ The vast majority of discussions we held were very positive.

Most people who were using or who had recently used the service, expressed satisfaction with their care and treatment. ” The CQC judged that Chorley and South Ribble Hospital was fully compliant with all five standards assessed.

Royal Preston Hospital was fully compliant with two standards, but did not achieve the other three because the CQC had some minor concerns that could have a minor impact on people who use the service.

One of the areas that the CQC said needed to be improved was the complaints management process. Whilst they said that changes needed to be made to help ensure that people who made complaints received satisfactory support and were provided with appropriate responses, they concluded that this would have a minor impact on people who use the service. At the time of the inspection we advised the CQC of improvements that we had already begun to make to the complaints process, which will result in: •

•

•

Increased opportunity for patients and the public to raise concerns informally rather than through a formal and potentially prolonged complaint investigation; Greater influence on how complaints are managed through opportunities for feedback; Improved quality of investigations and response through greater scrutiny, which should result in a greater likelihood of resolution.

In response to the findings of the inspection, we have introduced further improvements to raise public awareness of how to complain. Furthermore, we have increased the frequency of contact with complainants to keep them better informed about progress.

The other two concerns were regarding escalation and enhanced care as well as a concern over patients being moved too often between wards.

In terms of escalation and enhanced care we have recruited additional staffing and improved our processes to make sure all staff on duty are informed about any patients who need enhanced care in assessment areas.

In terms of patients being moved around too much; we have introduced new measures to minimise the number of times a patient is moved between wards, though this can be unavoidable during periods when we are exceptionally busy and more patients than expected have been admitted for urgent care.

Whilst we welcome the opportunity to try to resolve concerns locally at an early stage, should you wish to make a complaint you can do so by writing to the Chief Executive.

Alternatively you can email

Customer.Care@lthtr.nhs.uk or call the Customer Care Department on & 01772 522521 If you require support and assistance to make a complaint, staff in the PALS team can help on

& 01772 522972

Excellent care with compassion

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Winter pressures How is it going?

Waiting area in th e new day of surgery assessm ent area.

In the run up to this winter we have been working hard with other local services to try and ensure that this winter things run as smoothly as possible.

Looking back to last year, we know that although the numbers of patients attending the Emergency Department didn’t increase dramatically, there were significant spikes in attendance which put pressure on services throughout the hospitals, and there was a significant increase in the number of patients arriving by ambulance. Importantly the number of patients who required emergency admission did significantly increase, and many of those patients were elderly and stayed in hospital for longer than average.

Health and social care services across Lancashire have been reviewing the whole urgent care system and will be making changes that we believe will make a real difference to patients in the long term. However we also need to make sure patients can access the care they need this coming winter, and that staff are supported to respond to the inevitable increase in demand for hospital care during the next couple of months.

Some of the measures we have put in place include significant investment in staffing. A new bed system which was launched in November. It gives us real time information about bed occupancy, and helps us plan admissions. The system will flag up when patients test results have been received, and when they are fit to go home, which will help reduce length of stay and free up beds.

In December we opened a new Day of Surgery Assessment Area at Royal Preston Hospital. Patients having elective procedures will book in at 6 TRUSTMatters Excellent care with compassion

the new purpose built facility on the day of treatment, have their pre-op assessment and preparation, and wait in one place for their treatment reducing their length of stay and will free up beds.

During the winter our integrated therapies team, including occupational therapy, physiotherapy and nutrition will be working weekends and our social care colleagues will be working extended hours to help make sure our patients receive the care they need in a timely way, can recover more quickly, and discharged promptly.

So as you can see we’ve really put a lot of effort in to making sure our winter plan this year is as robust as possible, and as importantly we’re planning even bigger changes to the way urgent care works in the future. At the moment we’re not seeing a significant increase in attendance or admission but if and when that happens we’re as prepared as we can be.

Flu jabs As part of our winter pressures plan we have been encouraging all staff at both hospitals to have their flu vaccination to protect themselves, their families and their patients.

As part of the campaign we produced a ‘Harry Hill’ style video which showed a battle between the flu bug and the flu jab…the vaccine obviously won! It was a great way to communicate the message. You can see the video on Youtube, it’s called ‘Get your flu jab!’

We had a target of 75% for staff uptake of the vaccination and while we just missed out on that unfortunately, we did manage to achieve 67% which is the highest uptake we’ve ever had so the message is getting out there and we’re heading in the right direction.

NEWS ROUND UP...

New and improved ward for elderly patients re-opens We have now re-opened the Rookwood A elderly ward at Chorley Hospital following a major refurbishment.

It’s been given a makeover to make it more suitable and comfortable for older people, many of whom suffer from dementia. The refurbishment is part of a project to improve the hospital environment for dementia patients. It has been paid for using part of a £1million grant that was awarded to the Trust from the Department of Health.

It took five weeks to complete and now includes a new day room and sensory garden and new colour co-ordinated bays to make it easier for people with dementia to find their way around. The ward is totally secure and can accommodate up to 24 patients at any one time.

A second ward, Rookward B is now under-going the same refurbishment and should be open any day now!

As well as the two ward makeovers, improved signs are being put up around Chorley Hospital and Royal Preston to help dementia patients find their way around, there will also be designated ‘resting points’ on corridors at both sites sothat older people can rest if they need to.

Gill Lewis is the Ward Manager for Rookward A, she said: “I just want to say a massive thank you to everybody who has worked so hard to make this happen. The ward looks fantastic and will really transform the lives of our patients but also our staff.

Patients can wander freely around the unit and their loved ones can be sure that they are safe and that we have everything here that they need.

After

After

We have made it really comfortable and homely for them and there are pictures on the wall from all over Lancashire to encourage them to reminisce. We are also going to have afternoon tea here every Friday which we hope will really help keep their spirits up.”

Great PLACE results!

We achieved fantastic results in the new Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) survey, achieving above average scores in every category.

Categories

Trust score%

National average%

Cleanliness

99.7%

95.74%

Food and hydration

89.06%

84.98%

Privacy and wellbeing

94.26%

88.87%

Condition and appearance

95.06%

88.75%

Miles Timperley, Director of Facilities and Services, said: “We are really happy with the results as we consistently work hard to ensure that the facilities and surroundings at both of our hospitals are of the highest standard and that our patients are happy and comfortable.

Many staff across the organisation have contributed to achieving these excellent standards, from clinical staff and managers who ensure the privacy of patients is respected and patients are well nourished, to facilities staff who work tirelessly to keep the hospitals clean and maintained and provide a variety of nutritious meals. I want to say a big thank you to all staff for helping us to achieve this result, we will continue to ensure that these standards are maintained and improved even more.”

“ Many staff across the organisation have contributed to achieving these excellent standards.”

Excellent care with compassion

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Dates for your diary

Tell Us Your Email Address and you could WIN an iPad!

Events

We have an iPad Air 16GB WiFi model to give away to a lucky member. If you change your communication preference from post to email, before the 28 March 2014, you will be entered into the draw. All members who changed their communication preference to email during 2013 will also be entered. The winner will be contacted after the closing date.

• We will be holding a Focus on Diabetes event for members on Saturday 15 March 2014 at Chorley & South Ribble District Hospital and this will be in conjunction with our Bringing Healthcare to Life event. For further details please see the Chairman’s invitation and booking form in the covering letter accompanying this magazine.

• A further opportunity for members to attend the Focus on Diabetes presentation is available on Thursday 20 March 2014 at Royal Preston Hospital • Health Mela, Saturday 3 May 2014, Preston Guild Hall, Preston

council of governors meetings • Monday 14 April 2014, 1pm-4pm, Lecture Hall, Education Centre 3, Chorley & South Ribble District Hospital • Monday 14 July 2014, 1pm-4pm, Lecture Hall, Education Centre 2, Royal Preston Hospital

We want to spend as much money as possible on patient care. It costs us over 40p per copy to print and post TRUSTMatters to each of our members, so we are urging members with email addresses to contact the Membership Office to change their communication preference to email rather than post.

Changing is easy!

board of directors meetings

Please contact us either via phone on: 0800 073 0663 or email:

• Wednesday 26 February 2014, 9am, Seminar A, Education Centre 3, Chorley & South Ribble District Hospital

foundation.trust@lthtr.nhs.uk

• Wednesday 26 March 2014, 9am, Gordon Hesling Room, Royal Preston Hospital • Wednesday 30 April 2014, 9am, Seminar A, Education Centre 3, Chorley & South Ribble District Hospital

We’d also like to hear from you if your contact details have changed.

Thank you to all members who have changed already!

• Wednesday 28 May 2014, Gordon Hesling Room, Royal Preston Hospital • Wednesday 25 June 2014, 9am, Gordon Hesling Room, Royal Preston Hospital • Wednesday 30 July 2014, 9am, Seminar A, Education Centre 3, Chorley & South Ribble Hospital Foundation Trust members and the public are very welcome to come along for part one of the above meetings

Governor Elections Voting packs will be dispatched on the 11 March and you have until Monday 31 March 2014 to vote.

TRUSTMatters is available in different versions including audio.

If you require this magazine in a different format then please contact the Membership Office on:

✆ 0800 073 0663 or email: foundation.trust@lthtr.nhs.uk

FSC Mixed SourCe Logo & WORLDLAND TRUST LOGO

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Foundation Trust members can follow us on Twitter @LancsHospitals

To view TRUSTMatters online go to: www.lancsteaching hospitals.nhs.uk