Latest News from the North East Wales NHS Trust

The work of doctors and nurses has changed almost beyond recognition since the National Health Service was founded in 1948. Most doctors specialise to some degree and there are fewer and fewer doctors with a broad healthcare role. At the same time many roles that were previously the sole remit of doctors have now been taken over by specialist nurses.

Since, generally speaking, doctors are relatively expensive the Trust’s Clinical Ethics Committee (Eastern Area) is inviting people to attend a public meeting to debate the question:

“In a world of limited resources can we actually afford, and do we still need, doctors?”

This seminar is free of charge and is open to health and social care professionals, health studies students and interested members of the public. It will take place in Wrexham Medical Institute Lecture Theatre, 7.00pm to 9.30pm on Thursday 26th February 2009. Buffet refreshments will be served during the evening.

Speakers will include:

• Dr Peter Lepping, Associate Medical Director / Consultant Psychiatrist and Honorary Senior Lecturer;
• Dr Adrian Jones, Nurse Consultant and Visiting Reader, Glyndŵr University;
• Mrs Mary Burrows, Chief Executive of the North Wales NHS Trust;
• Dr Alberto Salmoiraghi, Consultant Psychiatrist and
• Dr Brian Tehan, Clinical Director & Consultant Anaesthetist

When mobile phones first came into widespread use there were concerns that they could interfere with sensitive medical equipment such as monitors. However extensive testing has shown that problems only occur if phones are brought close to such equipment.

This means that in many parts of a hospital mobile phones can be used safely and so the Trust will be allowing patients and visitors to use their phones, although this will be subject to strict conditions to make sure that the welfare of other patients is not affected and to avoid disruption to any patient’s treatment.

Trust Spokesman Andy Scotson said

“For many people mobile phones are an essential way to keep in contact with family and friends, and we want to help our patients keep in touch with loved ones while they are in hospital.

“However we also need to make sure that we don’t allow other patients to be disturbed by this, and with many phones now also including cameras it is important that the privacy of fellow patients is not compromised.

“There will be clear signs showing where phones can be used safely - in other areas they should we switched off.

“We will also insist that mobile phones are switched to silent mode inside the hospital, that people show courtesy to other patients by keeping noise levels down when talking and that any requests from staff not to use a phone in a particular area are followed.

“There is also a total ban on the taking of photos or video clips unless a member of staff has given permission for this.

“Hopefully everyone will recognise that these rules are there to protect the peace, privacy and well being of all our patients, and they will be followed so that we do not have to revert back to the blanket ban.”

Myrddin came into use on Monday 19th May, following five days of work to copy patient records over from the previous system and test that the records had transferred over correctly.

Given the scale of the project, it was expected that some difficulties might arise when the system was brought fully into use and was processing real patient data for the first time. However although there were some initial teething problems which meant that at times on the first couple of days the system ran slowly, the causes of this were quickly identified and fixed and within a couple of days Myrddin was performing as expected and there have been no other significant problems.

Most importantly there has been no disruption to clinical services while the change over took place and patients have not been affected.

It will take staff time to get used to Myrddin and to gain the same levels of skill and experience that they had with the previous patient administration system. Many of the questions that users have raised over the last week have been about understanding the differences in the way the two systems work and the adjustments they need to make to their own procedures.

Medical Director Mr Mark Scriven said:

“This is one of the largest Trusts in Wales to have moved to the Myrddin system. The planning for this has extended over nearly two years and has involved close co-operation between the system developers in the Hywel Dda NHS Trust and many colleagues here in the North East Wales Trust

“Although we did suffer some short term speed problems, staff coped magnificently by turning to our manual back-up systems and making sure that patients were not disadvantaged.

“To achieve such a major systems change with so little disruption is a huge achievement.”

“With the technology now running smoothly, the biggest challenge is helping staff to find their feet with the new system. We know from other Hospitals that have introduced Myrddin that it is easy to learn, and we are confident that the training and support that is being provided will mean staff will soon feel just as comfortable with Myrddin as they were with the old system.”

So far the new system is only offering the same range of services that were available on the old system. However over the coming months additional services will be brought into operation, extending the number of departments that are able to link into the system and allowing it to play a greater role in coordinating the care of patients across the Trust.

In total the Trust will be investing around £1million on the system. These costs cover the software, the IT infrastructure and hardware needed to run the system and the costs of moving the data from the old system to the new and will be spread out over five years. Partial funding support is being provided by the national “Informing Healthcare” programme which is a Welsh Assembly Government programme set up to improve health services in Wales by introducing new ways of accessing, using and storing information. The maintenance and running costs for Myrddin will be less than £250,000 per year which was the cost for the previous system.

The new Trust, which will be called the “North Wales NHS Trust”, will be operational from the 1st July 2008. An announcement on the appointment of the Chairman of the new Trust is expected shortly, with Directors to be appointed soon afterwards.

This merger is an exciting development and brings together over 11,000 staff providing hospital, community and mental health services for a local population of over 520,000 people.

The new Trust will be committed to providing safe, effective, high quality care for all its patients, and patients’ views will be at the centre of all that we do. Although there are no immediate plans to change patient services as a result of the merger, over time the changes will allow new developments to be introduced and these will be subject to full consultation.

Mr. Alun Lewis, Acting Chair of Conwy & Denbighshire NHS Trust said:

“We are delighted to be joining with our colleagues in the east, and believe that together we have the experience, skills and commitment to develop services for patients which are fit for the 21st century.”

Mr. Michael Williams, current Chair of North East Wales NHS Trust said:

“Bringing these two organisations together means we can share our strengths and expertise for the benefit of patients across a large part of North Wales and beyond. This merger opens up new opportunities for us to develop services, raise standards and further reduce waiting times.”

This is one of six awards presented by Minister for Health and Social Services Edwina Hart in an Award Ceremony held in Cardiff today, 15th May 2008.

The service is based in the Trust’s Flintshire Children’s Centre in Mancot and brings together specialist social workers, local authority occupational therapy staff, a specialist teacher, care coordinators, community learning disability nurses, special school nurses and Diana nurses into a single integrated team.

The team was set up after a review of services in 2000 showed that although there were some examples of good joint working, many services operated in different ways and were often fragmented and uncoordinated, meaning that the families of disabled children were left badly informed, confused and frustrated.

A consultation exercise with parents and health and social care professionals highlighted four specific areas where improvements were needed: to set up a single multi-agency team for disabled children, young people and their families, to have this team based on a single site with a single manager; to provide a simple route for families to get information, assessments and services, and to develop care-coordination.

Between 2003 and 2005 many of these recommendations were acted upon, with the separate services coming together into a single team and developing integrated systems to ensure children have access to all the services they need.

Since then the service has since been evaluated a number of times. In November 2005 the NCH charity concluded that having staff in one key location had been a success for disabled children, their families and staff alike. The majority of families that they interviewed said that multi agency services had improved their quality of life and the development of the new care coordination role had improved the quality of the service received by families.

Other studies have also shown how better co-ordination is leading to better care for families. Children and young people are getting better support, focussed on helping them to achieve their potential, while parents are getting more assistance so they feel able to carry on providing care for their disabled children.

The Trust’s Chief Executive Mary Burrows, who was in Cardiff with the CIDS team, said “This is well deserved recognition for the work that has gone on to bring these separate services together into a single, coordinated team.

“To provide the highest standards of care we have to breaking down boundaries and work together so we can make the best use of the skills and experience of colleagues across all parts of the health and social services.”