October 2008 News Letter

Below is a brief summary of the October Newsletter a full copy has been sent to all
Members and is freely available upon request info@nc-hi.com

Welcome:
Once again the last few weeks have been very busy for our representatives as you can see with the meeting reports.  Our very best wishes for a speedy recovery to one of our favourite members, Walter who sadly was admitted to Hospital last month, his daughters Gloria and Silvana have supported NCHI from the beginning and are extremely valued friends so our thoughts are with all the family. We would also like to say a very big thank you to the family of the late Peter Coleman who sent a very generous donation in the memory of
Mr. Coleman.…                                                                                         

Nutritional & Lifestyle Advice:                                                                                     
As mentioned in last month’s newsletter we now have available in leaflet form basic advice on nutrition and life style, especially for patients who are recovering after an illness, surgery or contraction of a Healthcare Infection.  The leaflet was compiled by Liz Tucker and aided by Bev. Liz works as a Health & Wellbeing Consultant, helping others to help themselves to a happier, healthier life.  Liz is co-founder of the Be Happy Be Healthier Initiative www.behappybehealthy.co.uk and a Health & Wellbeing Consultant for Champneys Health Resort, running a series of lifestyle health, stress, nutritional and weight management programmes and has a private clinic at the Hurlingham Clinic.
Better known as ‘The Health Detective’, Liz works extensively with the media, writing and contributing to a whole range of mainstream magazines and newspapers including a weekly column in the Sunday Telegraph.  She is also a regular on radio and television, most notably as GMTV’s Stress Expert and BBC Breakfast nutritional advisor.

There is also a new addition to the website in conjunction with this advice.  Bev has compiled a questionnaire form which will act as a statistical analysis tool for collecting data.

Nursing & Midwifery Council: New Code of Conduct & Standards:
The NMC was subject to a particularly adverse report from the CHRE in June 2008 and is in the process of implementing an action programme to address criticisms and recommendations from the CHRE Report. During the month of September/October the NMC held regional meetings to address actions regarding involvement in NMC work and stakeholder input into development of communication tools.  The NMC particularly encouraged the involvement of lay people in its future development plans.
The Nursing & Midwifery Council’s primary objective is the safeguarding of the health and well-being of the public by continuously regulating, reviewing and promoting nursing and midwifery standards. 
This is achieved by performance of fiver key tasks:

Innovation and Good Practice:
East of England SHA: Broomfield Hospital Chelmsford – Mid Essex NHS Trust:                               Both Bev and Doreen were very impressed with the Infection Prevention and Control Team at this hospital.  Firstly they were confronted by an army of canary yellow tunics.  The Infection Prevention leads are piloting this tunic so it makes them immediately highly visible and recognisable around the hospital, it’s quite reassuring to see this band of Nurses as you know straight away they are treating Patient Safety as a priority.  Their Chief Executive Ruth May is also a very highly visible person leading the way from the Board down, and is fully supportive of the Infection Prevention Team.  Another innovative idea they have come up with is a patient card that is no bigger than a business card.  It simply states patients name and number and the infection they contracted: it also states ‘please be aware when prescribing me antibiotics or  when reviewing dressings’ – this is then kept by the patient at all times so even after discharge the correct information follows the patient at all times.                                                  

 NCHI:  Invitations:                                                                                                      
A breakdown of all invitations can be now be found on the Forthcoming Events page on the website.  Meetings, engagements will be reported each month as and when they take place.

NCHI:  Meeting Reports:
These are just brief summaries of the meetings covered by our representatives last month a full copy of all meetings are available upon request:  info@nc-hi.com or 01942 208804

16 Sept:        
Infection Control Meeting:  Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust: following Sheila flagging up some breaches in infection prevention to the Infection control lead and Facilities Manager Sheila, Bev and Val were invited along to a meeting.  Also attending this meeting was Michelle Davies: Domestic Services Manager: Paul Howarth: Facilities Manager: Ann Taylor Infection Prevention Lead: Marie Boswell: Infection Prevention Quality Performance Lead. There was a brief overview of progress from each party, issues of concern were raised and addressed and it has been agreed that NCHI and Pennine Acute Trust will work in collaboration with each other and meetings will take place every quarter.

23 Sept:       
Infection Prevention Society Conference: Harrogate: Neil was attending this conference in his role with Talley but managed to make a few contacts on behalf of NCHI and as a result we have been invited to take part in a pilot project. 

24 Sept:        
Patient Safety Campaign: Directors of Quality meeting: Holiday Inn Haydock.  PFPS Champions Bev Hurst (NCHI) and Ann Bisbrown-Lee were invited to this meeting as the Northwest SHA launch of the Patient Safety Champion Project.  Both Bev and Ann were asked to give a presentation regarding the role of Patient Safety Champion and how their own personal experience had affected them.  Both Bev & Ann were welcomed warmly and already invitations are coming in to roll out work within the Northwest.  The girls are going to be very busy indeed as they have one of the larger SHA areas to cover as it stretches from Cumbria to the edges of Cheshire.

26 Sept:        
Bev was invited to a Development meeting at Salford Royal Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with Maxine Power: Associate Director Quality Improvement: Neil Wigglesworth: Infection Control Consultant Nurse: Salford is keen to promote the patient public involvement in their work towards patient safety and NCHI will be doing a lot more work with this trust. Val Bradbury accompanied Bev 

2 Oct:            
HCAI: Whole Health Economy workshop: Haydock: PFPS Champions Bev (NCHI) and Ann were invited to attend this workshop by Sonia Norris who is part of the HCAI cleaner hospitals programme DH and is in post with the Northwest SHA.  The event was very well attended by representation from most of the Trusts across the Northwest: including Acute: Primary: Ambulance and Mental Health.    The event also lent the opportunity for Ann & Bev to be introduced as the Patient Safety Champions for the Northwest to a much wider audience.  There were several requests for them to work around the region on various projects and this will be brought together in the very near future.

3 Oct:            
AvMA/THOTH workshop ‘Managing the consequences of adverse incidents’ Salford Quays Manchester. Bev was invited to be one of the guest speakers at this event. The event was to discuss IT innovation to help promote patient safety and again the event lent the opportunity for the Patient Safety Champions to network and once again they have been invited to work with other trusts around the region.

9 Oct:            
Public Services Events: Infection Control2 08 ‘Achieving control in the community’ Barbican Conference Centre: London:  Guest speaker NCHI Bev PFPS Champion: Delegates included Graham Tanner, Neil Manser, Emma Disney, Doreen Marsden (NFSUK) Lilly Lewy, Sheila Mitchell, Val Bradbury, Ann Bisbrown-Lee (PFPS Champion) June Hitchcock (PFPS Champion) Bev’s presentation consisted of the traumatic story of Emma’s Mum and family when sadly Emma’s Mum died after contracting MRSA from the Care Home where she worked as a nurse and she also touched on the sad story surrounding the death of Doreen’s son when he contracted Necrotising Fasciitis. 

10 Oct:         
AvMA/THOTH workshop ‘Managing the consequences of adverse incidents’ Avon Gorge Hotel Bristol. Graham was invited to be one of the guest speakers at this event.

13 Oct:        
Healthcare Event Conference: A practical guide to reducing MRSA: Manchester conference   centre: Guest speakers: NCHI Neil and Bev: Delegate Val Bradbury.  Again this allowed for a lot of networking and further contacts were made.

14 Oct:         
Patient Safety Campaign: Northwest Patient Safety Team: Development meeting: Gateway House Manchester: PFPS Champions Bev (NCHI) and Ann met with Sue Bothwell and several other members of the PSAT team.

Other articles covered in this month’s newsletter are:

Healthcare Commission Improvement Notices:
Media Attention:
Members Postbag: * our thoughts * Birthday Greetings * Patients for Patient Safety Champions
* Closures in Kent: Laura Probert * Follow up to non compliance * Membership & Website news.

Contact details:
Committee Members 

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