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9th April 2010 2. Health and social care news 3. News from National Voices’ Partners & Friends 4. Consultations & Involvement Opportunities
CEO’s message
After months of phoney war it is a relief that the official election campaign is finally underway. We will be providing analysis of the three main parties’ health and social care promises for National Voices members, so keep a look out in the next days and weeks.
At a King’s Fund event earlier this week Andy Burnham set out the Labour vision based on more prevention, more people-focus, more care out of hospitals and integrated health and social care. He attempted to clarify his position on NHS as preferred provider, but it still wasn’t clear! The mood of the meeting was somewhat skeptical: good vision but how to get there now that the money was running out? During the question and answer session I urged Andy Burnham to ensure an open and honest debate about tough decisions lying ahead, including hospital closures, and earlier and better involvement of patients and citizens in major service change proposals. I called for better feedback channels for patients and carers and better and quicker responses to feedback. I said that the Government’s plans to embed patient experience in the formula for paying hospitals, while well-intentioned, risked creating a bureaucratic exercise which missed the point. Finally, on the subject of “preferred provider” I spoke up for the role of the voluntary sector as service provider, champion of users and partner of the NHS and social care systems.
Invitation to GMC Revalidation events As mentioned in a previous diary blocker notice, National Voices will be running 2 Service User Panel events with the General Medical Council (GMC) on doctors’ revalidation. This is a really exciting development as you will have the opportunity to influence the way in which doctors will be regulated in the future, by discussing with the GMC representatives how patients can provide feedback to doctors on their performance and how this can be included in the revalidation process.
So far we have had more interest for the London event than the Leeds one, but we are aiming to have 30-35 attendees at each event.
The full agenda for the day is now available – please click here to access it. I invite you to RSVP (if you haven’t already) forone of the following (as both events will run the same agenda, and will be timed 10.30 – 15.00):
Monday 26 April – Leeds (The Park Plaza Leeds, Boar Lane, City Square, LS1 5NS, Leeds)Friday 21 May – London (The GMC’s London offices, Regent's Place, 350 Euston Road, London NW1 3JN)
Please include any dietary or access requirements we need to be aware of on the day.
We hope you’ll find this an interesting opportunity and I look forward to hearing from you by email or on 020 3176 0734. Call for Evidence Do you have good case examples of shared decision-making between clinicians and patients, and of patient and public involvement in the design and delivery of services? Do these include evidence of improvements in clinical outcomes, patient experience or value for money? Jeremy Taylor recently joined members of the NHS Alliance at a meeting with Sir John Oldham at the Department of Health. Sir John is leading part of the Department’s QIPP programme (quality, innovation, productivity and prevention). This is the programme which is seeking to do more for less as the NHS gears up to find up to £20 billion of savings in the short term and cope with rising demand in the longer term. Sir John understands the value and relevance to QIPP of shared decision making and of patient and public involvement. He is keen to see good practice examples of both. Please forward anything you might be useful to the National Voices team by email or post (address below). It will be useful for us too, as we amass the evidence for our planned ‘White Paper’ later this year. ‘Share the Power’ update On 30 March we hosted our ‘Share the Power’ campaign event in central London, which a good portion of our Service User Panelists attended in addition to representatives from member organisations. The event was organised to provide an update on National Voices’ priorities, involve attendees in shaping our influencing agenda, and for Service User Panel members to discuss their priorities and to help shape the Panel work programme. We really enjoyed hearing all your stories, views and comments and we are looking forward to being able to circulate the report from the day as soon as it is ready! Watch this space…
National Voices in the media on the topic of hospital closures Over 40 National Voices' members have supported our call for earlier patient involvement in hospital closures and the re-design of health. In a letter to The Times, Chief Executive Jeremy Taylor says members expect a wave of service changes including hospital closures as the NHS scrabbles to find savings. This need not be a bad thing. Too many people are admitted to hospital unnecessarily, stay too long and have a poor experience. However, it does not follow that every hospital closure will be justified. Local citizens must have a genuine say in local schemes. This links to our ‘Share The Power’ campaign. The BBC website has also picked up our campaign theme on hospital closures, as well as the Yorkshire Post. Jeremy Taylor presses for patient rights on Radio 4 National Voices' Chief Executive Jeremy Taylor joined an expert panel on Radio 4’s You and Yours programme to advocate for patients on 23 March. The phone-in programme covered appointment times, self-care and complaints. Jeremy questioned the notion of the ‘worried well’, dismissed a suggestion that people should be charged for access to GPs, advocated better support and information for people with long-term conditions and called for improved complaints and feedback handling, echoing a strand of National Voices' current campaign.Click here to access the recording. Phil Hope MP praises the third sector at our National Assembly Phil Hope MP praised the third sector at a National Voices gathering on 18 March in London. Addressing the latest meeting of the National Assembly – National Voices’ ‘Parliament’ – the Minister of State for Care Services thanked National Voices for helping to put social care up the agenda, and emphasised the important role of third sector organisations as trusted intermediaries between individuals in need and the state. The Minister conveyed his frustrations with the unfairness of the current system for funding social care and set out the Government’s principles for reform, including the emphasis on prevention, integration and more care delivered in people’s homes. National Assembly members challenged the minister to take full account of the needs of chronically excluded groups such as gypsies and travellers, and those struggling on benefits or living off credit cards. The Minister was urged to strengthen and better publicise the NHS Constitution, to do more to engage with patients and service users on a continual basis, rather than through episodic consultations, and to encourage the use of volunteer expert patients as advocates.
Phil Hope said that personalisation and active outreach were the key to ensuring that all people’s needs were met, not just the middle classes. He stressed the importance of health and social care integration and highlighted Milton Keynes as a positive example of joint commissioning. He invited our views on how the NHS Constitution could be strengthened and encouraged National Voices to continue presenting patient and user views. National Voices at the NHS Leadership day On Wednesday 24 March, National Voices and nine of our member organisations played host to workshop sessions at the NHS Leadership Day organised by the National Leadership Council, attended by some 450 delegates made up of NHS managers, clinicians and front line staff. Effectively a ‘speed dating scenario’, each organisation had the opportunity to voice its particular concerns, thoughts, views and current or upcoming work face-to-face with a cross section of exemplary leaders from across the service.
Details of the 9 organisations represented on the day, as well as some of the learning they were able to convey to delegates about the condition or cause they represent, can be found here.
2. Health and social care news Social Care White Paper – building a national care service The long-awaited Social Care White Paper was published on 30 March. Under the Government’s plans, there will be an additional £670 million to meet some of the costs of free help at home for the most needy. A new funding system will come in from 2014. Eventually, the postcode lottery in the availability and affordability of social care is set to be abolished, which would be a great advance. The Government has proposed another expert body to decide on the fairest funding system to support that vision. This effectively postpones until after the Election decisions that many had hoped would be contained in the White Paper itself. The funding of social care, which includes personal support with dressing, feeding and washing, and support for carers, is means-tested and hugely variable from place to place in both affordability and availability. While Labour and the Conservatives have pledged to ring-fence front line NHS spending, this pledge does not apply to social care, a large part of which is funded by local authorities, whose budgets will be under huge pressure in the next two years. Even with an additional £670 million to support personal care at home, it is not clear what will happen to the overall level of funding for social care. The Government has said that increases in funding will come from efficiency savings. In response to the publication of the White Paper, National Voices issued a press release, in which we welcome the reforms that envision of a more equitable system, but question the timescale, warning that social care could get worse before it gets better. All NHS trusts in England now registered under the CQC All 378 NHS trusts providing services in England are now registered with the Care Quality commission (CQC), whose full legal powers came into force on 1 April. Trusts must be registered with CQC by law to provide care. To be registered, trusts needed to show they meet new essential standards of quality and safety, which CQC will constantly monitor. To learn more about the new system and what difference it will make to health and social care services, click here. New developments in Information Prescriptions A new Information Prescriptions Service is scheduled to go live this month, which will assist health and social care professionals in providing patients with tailored information about their condition, treatment options and wider support needs. Building on the information directory on long-term conditions currently available on NHS Choices, the new service also includes information from key national charities and will allow local organisations to upload their own information. Key features of the new service are a dispensing history that shows what information has been given to each patient, and the ability to add personal notes to the patient, highlighting key facts and summarising their conversation. The information prescription can be printed, emailed to patients as a digital version and stored in the patient’s records. The website will go live within the next few weeks and will be accessed at www.nhs.uk/ips. Prescription & dental charges On 26 March, Health Minister Mike O'Brien announced that the cost of a prescription in England will be frozen at £7.20 per item for 2010/11. NHS dental charges will also remain the same for this period. Government response to the consultation on direct payments The Government has published its response to the consultation it ran on proposals for regulations and guidance on direct payments for health care. Age equality in health and social care. A report on the consultation The report on the responses to the consultation on ‘Achieving Age Equality in health and social care’, from Sir Ian Carruthers and Jan Ormondroyd, was published on 11 March. It sets out the Department of Health position on the recommendations in the original report. Click here for to read more.
3. News from National Voices’ Partners & Friends I have dementia - I also have a life: ‘Living Well’ with Dementia campaign The Alzheimer’s Society and the Department of Health launched a campaign last month to raise awareness and educate the public about dementia, as new research shows that one in three people are uncomfortable around people with dementia. Information packs and a resource pack - ‘Simple ways to help - 5 ways to help someone living with dementia’ - are available from the ‘Living Well’ campaign website. The adverts and more information about the campaign can be found on the Alzheimer’s Society website. The Parkinson’s Disease Society has changed its name! On 8 April, the Parkinson’s Disease Society changed its name to Parkinson’s UK. With ambitious plans for the next five years, and the vision ‘Change Attitudes. Find a Cure. Join Us’, this new branding will give people affected by Parkinson’s a stronger, more united, voice. Visit their website for more information.
‘Your Election check-up’ from the King’s Fund The King’s Fund has launched an interactive game called ‘Your Election check-up’. The game is a means of demonstrating the different approaches to health and social care from the three main political parties and acts as a gateway to the wider election coverage on their micro site, which includes such resources as a quick guide to the 3 main parties’ health policies. Click here to access the game and microsite.
4. Consultations & Involvement Opportunities Where next for patients’ rights? We have agreed to circulate this survey from the Labour Party, which is keen for patients and their organisations to inform its thinking on the development of the NHS Constitution. We are equally open to providing this opportunity to the other political parties. Opportunity to join Advisory Group for national specialised services An advisory group for national specialised services is currently being established as a Stakeholder Advisory Group responsible for advising Ministers as to what highly specialised services should be nationally commissioned and what centres should be designated as national providers. The group will also recommend the annual budget for nationally commissioned specialised services. They are currently seeking to appoint 6 members, including 2 Patients/Carers with experience of rare conditions and specialised treatments and 2 Lay Members with a strong interest in specialised services, products and health technologies. For all posts it is essential that applicants have a high level of analytical and communication skills, a good knowledge of the English NHS, a credible level of experience of expert committee work and a broad understanding of the specialised commissioning system and its impact on the wider community. After the interviews have taken place candidates who best fit the criteria will be recommended to the NHS Medical Director who will make the final appointment. Patients/Carers and Lay Members will receive £75 per half day and £150 per entire day for attendance at meetings. All members can claim travel and subsistence allowances at the standard NHS rates. It is anticipated that the group will meet 3-5 days per year. The initial appointments will be for two or three years. If you think you have the qualities they require and you would like to apply, please visit the websitehttp://www.appointments.org.uk or call 0870 240 3802 for an information pack, quoting reference DH10026. Closing date for applications is 12 noon on Tuesday 27 April 2010. Your choice of GP practice: a consultation on how to enable to register with the GP practice of their choice Last September, the Secretary of State for Health, Andy Burnham, announced the Government’s intention to liberalise the current system of GP practice boundaries to enable people to have a far greater choice over which GP practice they register with. The Department of Health is now seeking views from the public, healthcare professionals and other staff working in the NHS on various options for enabling patients to register with the GP practice that best meets their needs; whether that is a practice near their work, or simply a different practice near their home that offers more services or longer opening hours. It would also mean that patients can stay with their current practice if they move house. The consultation sets out the different options for organising healthcare for patients, and the potential implications of their choices if the current system of GP practice boundaries is removed. To read more and respond to the consultation (closing date 28.05.10), click here. The King’s Fund survey on quality in general practice The King's Fund is running an 18-month inquiry into the quality of general practice in England. As part of this work, they are conducting an opinion survey on the extent to which general practice is currently providing high-quality patient care and the reaction of those working in general practice on current approaches to ‘quality improvement’. To contribute your views clickhere. The findings will be used to inform the results of the Inquiry.
Contributions If you have any items of information, or a personal story of involvement you would like to share with us in a future edition ofService User Voices, please send details to me by email.
Lizzy Allen Involvement Coordinator Direct line: 020 3176 0734 lizzy.allen@nationalvoices.org.uk | www.nationalvoices.org.uk |
