Paper 5.2.7. North Edinburgh Public Partnership Forum Steering Group Draft Notes of Meeting Wednesday 30 March 2011 : 2.00pm to 4.00pm The Leith Community Treatment Centre Present: Irene Garden Stewart Blaik Jim Brown Sylvia Boal Mary Cameron Willie Hardie Joe Lamb Betty Shorthose Al Garden Madge Ebbs Marian McIntyre Errol Strathdee Anne Munro Joan Turner Iris McMillan Stan Eadie Parveen Haider In attendance: Lesley Baxter Susan Austin Carole Kelly Karen Jim Kendall Apologies David Belfall Carrie Ho Dr B Agrawal Bob Anderson Heather Levy Helen Sims Ruth MacLennan John Miller Convener Vice Convener (Leith Community Council & Leith Neighbourhood Partnership) Delegate on ECHP Sub Committee & Performance Management Group NEPPF representative on Quality Improvement Group Local community member Delegate on ECHP Sub Committee, Community Council NEPPF representative, Health Link Advisory Board Local Community Member Pilton Health Project Pilton Health Project Parkinson s Disease Society Deafblind Scotland Pilmeny Development Project Scottish Pensions Association Local Community Member Leith Central Community Council Milan Public Involvement Coordinator Edinburgh Community Health Partnership (Minutes) Scottish Health Council Carers Services Development Manager Deafblind Scotland Guide Vice Chair, South Edinburgh PPF Cramond Community Council Scottish Huntington s Lothian Local Community Member Chair, Edinburgh Community Health Partnership Chair, South Edinburgh PPF MESH Care for Carers 1
Item 1 Welcome and Introductions and matters arising not on the agenda The convener welcomed everyone. Everyone introduced themselves for the benefit of new members and visitors. Lesley Baxter had some information for members. Item 2 Circulation of information Lesley Baxter handed out the following information that had become available since the papers were circulated Summary of the Edinburgh Community Health Partnership papers. Report from the Quality Improvement Team meeting from Sylvia Boal. Pilton Community Health Project Information about a half day training session for information support (attached) Patient representative being sought for the Community Health Partnerships and Royal Edinburgh Hospital and Associated Services (CHP REAS) Control of Infection Committee (CIC) (attached). Item 3 - Presentation Carole Kelly, Carers Services Development Manager A copy of the presentation is attached. For those of you who receive a paper copy only of the minutes, contact Lesley Baxter if a paper copy of the slides is required. Main points covered as follows. This year NHS Lothian has allocated almost 0.5M to carer services from the Carer Information Strategy. The National Carer Strategy published last year had two strands: Working Together which dealt with adult carers and Getting it Right for Young Carers which obviously relates to young people in a caring role. Identification of carers is a vital first step otherwise services cannot be provided or offered. GP practices and community nursing staff are important in identifying and referring carers. NHS staff must be aware of the services that can be offered to carers so they can signpost people to the most appropriate services. Carer information is crucial at the right time and place Ensuring the health of Carers must be a priority. An Edinburgh Carers network has been established. A leaflet was handed out about the Edinburgh Carer Support Team (attached). If hard copies are required please contact Rashpal Nottay on 0131 537 7104 or rashpal.nottay@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk NHS staff training has been developed. VOCAL (Voices of Carers across Lothian) is one of the organisations delivering the training. Training for carers is also available. VOCAL is one of the main organisations offering training. Carers are able to claim expenses for sitters etc. It is now possible to book VOCAL courses online on www.vocal.org.uk/ Work is being done with schools to identify young carers to provide support to them (help with homework, allowing mobile phones, etc) Work is ongoing to establish how organisations are capturing information and identifying carer outcomes. What must be assessed is what the outcomes are for the carers and how is it making a difference rather than what is being done for carers and to how many. 2
Discharge from hospital arrangements. New booklet Carole introduced a booklet about discharge from hospital produced jointly by NHS Lothian and Edinburgh Council (copy of booklet attached by email). If hard copies are required please contact Rashpal Nottay on 0131 537 7104 or rashpal.nottay@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk The NEPPF members raised the following points The booklet was very well received as was the information it contained. Members reported that correct procedures were not always being followed leading to patients not coping at home and / or being readmitted to hospital. Sometimes it needs the carers to ensure that discharge arrangements are put in place rather than it happening as a matter of course. Patients without a carer are particularly vulnerable if no one is checking whether appropriate discharge arrangements have been put in place it was pointed out that the booklet is also appropriate for a self-carer. It was felt that an emergency contact number should be set up in case proper discharge arrangements are not put in place. The booklet was really good for carers who could carry it with them to use as a reference when trying to organise the appropriate discharge arrangements. Revised discharge policy Lesley to try to find out more information. Carers must feedback to the appropriate department / service / manager / complaints team, if the system is not working. There are Social Workers who work in hospitals carers and staff must get them involved and make sure their procedures are followed. Distributing the booklet A discussion took place about how to ensure that carers are receiving a copy of the booklet at the appropriate time. GPs refer patients to hospital so could they give the carer or patient a booklet when they decide to refer? A booklet should be put into the discharge envelope some members thought this would be too late to be of help. Booklet should be put in with the admission letter so the patient and / or carer has time to read and reflect on the discharge requirements. Discharge arrangements other issues that were raised Discharges on a Friday very often lead to problems or readmissions if appropriate discharge arrangements are not in place. More people in the future will be leaving hospital with complex needs therefore appropriate discharge arrangements will be even more important. There was interest in how GP practices fit into discharge arrangements. PPF members had spoken to clinical leads about the possibility of attending practice managers meetings and some of these issues may be a useful discussion item. Carole finished by telling the group about a conference that is being organised on June 17 which is in Carers Week. It will involve carers in discussions and workshops. PPF members will be informed when further information is available. Carole was asked if expenses for sitters would be available and this will also be confirmed. Lesley to find out about revised discharge policy. 3
Item 4 Apologies As above Item 5 Update from members Update 1 Irene fed back information about pill dispensers and training of home care staff to help patients to take their medication in their own home. An excerpt from the notes of the Community Health Partnership (CHP) meeting is attached (email) as is the paper that was circulated to CHP sub committee representatives. The NEPPF members felt that clarity was needed on the CHP decision and on whether pill dispensers will still be filled at pharmacies. Lesley Baxter and Reps Update 2 Sylvia reported on the Quality Improvement team meeting. Public Involvement A report on the public involvement projects carried out by Anne-Marie Comber and the work carried out by Lesley Baxter on projects and the PPFs was discussed. Sylvia commented on the massive amount of work that s being done in public involvement but expressed concern about what happens to the information where does it go should it go further to, for example, the health board? She felt that more needed to be done to inform people about the breadth of work being done in public involvement. Staff Governance A suggestion had been made that signs should be put up in practices like those on buses stating that staff have the right to work without a threat of violence. Sylvia was concerned that patients may then feel concerned if they thought there could be a threat of violence. Another member did say that his practice already had a similar sign and he personally hadn t been worried about it. Pharmacy Service Pharmacists offer a chronic need prescribing service which is linked to the repeat prescribing process. A member said that GPs are not necessarily buying into this system as they would need to change their computer systems. The pharmacy champion has offered to attend a NEPPF meeting to talk about it in more detail. Signage and seating at the Astley Ainslie Hospital Sylvia had contacted the Astley Ainslie Hospital about the poor quality of the signage in the grounds as well as the lack of places to sit for patients and visitors. Sylvia has received word that the signage is to be upgraded and the seating is being looked at. Update 3 Stan is still attending PEAT (Patient Environment Teams) inspections. He reported on a food inspection carried out recently at the Royal Infirmary. Specialist food is being offered and this is only one of four sites in the country offering this selection. It includes Afro-Caribbean dishes, Asian dishes and Halal dishes. On the subject of food, Iris commented that only crisps and sweets were available in machines in the A&E department of the Royal Infirmary. Food is available in the canteen and other outlets in the vicinity but they are not accessible for people with limited mobility. Lesley Baxter to ask a colleague in the CHP to feed this back to the appropriate contact in the Royal Infirmary 4
Update 4 Stewart attended the Infection Control Committee Conference as the NEPPF representative. He said that he had felt involved and that people had listened to him and taken note of his comments. Some people were present from Scottish Government departments but no politicians attended. Information leaflets were mentioned the Scottish Government produces leaflets on many issues and topics however they can be very difficult to access. Stan said that many publications are available from the Scottish Office. Update 5 Parveen reported that funding for one area of her work with Milan had ceased. She stressed how important good communication is for the BME community. Update 6 Anne said she was happy to see older people s views represented in the Mental Health Briefing newsletter circulated with the agenda. She noted that a Strategic Implementation Group was to be established in April and would be keen to find out about the proposed membership. Lesley Baxter to contact Linda Irvine re proposed membership of the Strategic Implementation Group. Update 7 A point was raised about the lack of a bus tracker system at the bus stop at the Royal Infirmary. Also there is no audible version at the bus stop. Irene to bring up at the transport group that she sits on. Stan may have some information about how the bus tracker system works. Item 6 Minutes and action notes Waste Medicines Susan reported that Pat Murray (Director of Pharmacy) and Sandra McNaughton (Associate Director, Contracted Community Pharmacy Services & Community Health Partnership Development) have met and Susan hopes that the PPF reps nominated for this group will be contacted soon to arrange the first waste medicines meeting. Web Pages Survey Lesley told everyone that a survey monkey online questionnaire had been set up which would also be used to enter the data from the hard copy questionnaires. She asked members to let her know if they would be interested in inputting some data at home. Members were asked to continue asking people to complete surveys and to circulate the survey monkey link to networks and contacts Lesley to send out the link in next week or two. The link will be in the next information bulletin. Lesley to send out survey monkey link. Better Together GP Practice Patient Survey Lesley Baxter had amalgamated the responses from the 18 GP practices (19 have now responded) that had submitted an action plan. It had been circulated with the agenda. 5
One member commented that 18 out of 77 practices didn t represent a very good response however the ones that were received showed how much work some practices were doing to improve services for patients. Members to consider ways to be more involved in practices that request help. Item 6 Issues to be taken to the Community Health Partnership meeting Summary of papers tabled Clarify the CHP decision and on whether pill dispensers will still be filled at pharmacies. Item 7 Date of next meeting Wednesday 25 May 2011, 10.30am to 12.30pm Venue: The Leith Community Treatment Centre 6