Attend
The South East Regional one
day conference will be held at the Royal Surrey Hospital Guidford on
Saturday 10th May 2008.
There is a charge for parking of £4 if pre booked and a fee of £10 each
delegate. If any members apart from Roger and Monica
wis to go please let us know.
We have again six places in
this event which proved so successful for us in 2007. We are grateful to the
runners who took part and have again agreed to support us this year. There
are also two new supporters in 2008 so that we now have a full team. The race is
not as onerous as a marathon or half-marathon and is run through specially
closed roads in central London. If anyone knows of a minibus and driver to
transport local runners and supporters please let us know as we have a parking
ticket for the event but it does not cover private cars.
February Meeting
Margaret Walker of Attend spoke at the
meeting on Tuesday 5th February 2008 about the work of the Whitstable
and Tankerton Hospital League of Friends. As well as the usual work of this
group in raising funds for the hospital and providing a trolley service for the
in-patients they have a befriending group to assist past patients and others in
the Whitstable community. Margaret is also concerned with the Patients User
Group at Whitstable Health Centre. She spoke also about the changes in the
health and social services provision for public engagement referred to elsewhere
in this letter and the need for patients to keep representatives in the new LINk
body informed of concerns in the care and treatment they receive
Kent Local Involvement
Network – Kent LINk
The Kent LINk Event took
place on 30 January 2008 and was held in Lenham Community Centre from 10am till
2pm.
The day was hosted by the
PPI Forums which it will replace, and was run by an external facilitator, Judy
Oliver, to keep the formation of the LINk independent from Kent County Council (KCC).
Many individuals and organisations across Kent were invited to attend and over
100 people were there on the day including Roger from Epilepsy HERE.
The aim of the event was to:
·
Update
everyone about the national picture and the role of KCC in appointing a Host
organisation to support the work of the LINk;
·
Capture the
views of those who attended in order to ensure the new organisation reflects the
experience of the people and the rich diversity of perspectives to be found in
the county; and
·
Recruit
members to the Kent LINk Steering Group.
Foundation Status
The East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust has applied for foundation status which is
intended to give more freedom to develop health services that meet local needs,
give local people a greater say in decision making and greater control on how
the money is obtained and spent. To obtain more details you can visit their
website at
www.ekht.nhs.uk
or telephone 01227 866417. There are various local meetings including one at
Harvey Hall, K&C Hospital on 7th March 2008 from 3.30 p.m. to 5.30
p.m.
'Patients should be seen as a catalyst for
change and a compass, giving direction to our
efforts to reduce unsafe care' said Sir Liam
Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer for England and
Chair of the WHO World Alliance for Patient
Safety when speaking at the 3rd Global Patients
Congress of the International Alliance of
Patients' Organizations (IAPO). His keynote
speech highlighted the progress being made
worldwide to address the role of the patient as
an essential partner in the design and delivery
of healthcare. The Congress, held in Budapest,
Hungary from 20-22 February 2008, brought
together over 180 delegates from around the
world including Roger and Monica Kendall from
Herne Bay representing Epilepsy HERE. They met
with patients and other stakeholders in health
such as the European Commission, the World
Health Organization (WHO) and global health
professionals' associations, with the aim of
learning from each other's experiences in
developing patient-centred healthcare. Keynote
addresses demonstrated the central role that
patients are increasingly playing in healthcare
today. Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical
Officer, England and Chair of the WHO World
Alliance for Patients Safety, Ms Katalin Rapi,
Secretary of State for Health Policy at the
Ministry of Health, Hungary and Mr. Andrzej Ryz,
Director, Public Health & Risk Assessment at the
European Commission, DG SANCO. All highlighted
the importance of developing collaboration
between patients and all other healthcare
stakeholders The Congress' key theme of patient-centred
healthcare was complemented by a focus on Access
to Healthcare, Patient Safety, Patient
Information and Patient Involvement.
Through workshops and plenary sessions, speakers
demonstrated the progress that has been made in
these areas since the previous Congress in 2006.
In his keynote address Sir Liam Donaldson
highlighted the growing recognition given to
patients as experts or teachers, helping to
ensure that consumers receive the care they need
in an appropriate and safe way. Sir Liam said
that in the event of medical error we must
always see the opportunity to forgive the error,
but we should not forgive an unwillingness to
learn from it. He went on to say that the
patient should be seen as our conscience for
safe care, a catalyst for change, a witness of
the quality of care, a compass, giving direction
to our efforts and as teachers in how we learn
from unsafe care. The work of the WHO Patients
for Patients Safety programme, led by Susan
Sheridan for the WHO World Alliance for Patients
Safety, exemplifies this approach through its
Patient Champions. These Champions play a key
role in improving patient safety both on a
personal level in interactions with the
healthcare system, but also by working in
partnership with healthcare professionals,
policy-makers and other stakeholders involved in
healthcare. In the question session following
the address Monica Kendall asked that if the
patient was expected to forgive the error who
would be expected to bear the cost of the error
to the patient and their family. Patient-centred
healthcare and the valuable role of patients'
organisations was also the focus of the closing
keynote address, given by Ms Katalin Rapi,
Secretary of State for Health Policy at the
Ministry of Health in Hungary.
The 9th Annual General Meeting of Epilepsy HERE
The AGM will take place
at Canterbury Umbrella Centre, St. Peter's Place, Canterbury on 7.30 p.m. on
Tuesday 3rd June 2008. After the usual business meeting to appoint
trustees and adopt the accounts. Jenny Knight Assistant Director Patient &
Public Engagement of Eastern & Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust has kindly
agreed to talk to us about changes in the methods of patient consultation in
the NHS. We shall send a copy of the Annual Report to those members who
regularly attend and if any others require a copy but are not coming to the
meeting please let us know.
Canterbury City Council
We are grateful to
Canterbury City Council for a grant of £500 and a Parking Concession of £240.
This grant is particularly valuable since we are able to set it against core
costs and membership fees to other useful
organisations.
Through the Canterbury Local Strategic Partnership Epilepsy HERE has received
a grant from Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT to deliver Epilepsy Awareness
Training to Care Homes in the Canterbury District Council Area.
We are currently in discussion with the
National Society for Epilepsy and the Epilepsy Nursing Service as to how best
to incorporate Rescue Medication Training within this programme.
Complementary Medicine
Professor Edzard Ernst of
Exeter University has collaborated with author and producer Simon Singh to
write a book published by Bantam Press on 21st April 2008.
This book entitled 'Trick
or Treatment' aims to reveal the truth about the potions, lotions, pills,
needles pummelling and energizing that lie beyond the realms of conventional
medicine, but which are used supposedly to heal patients. To find out what
works and what does not. We expect to include a more detailed review in the
next issue.
The National Society for
Epilepsy held a seminar for Health Professionals at Canterbury Christ Church
University on Wednesday 9th April. Roger and Monica attended in
their capacity of Epilepsy Information Volunteers and enjoyed the day. The
theme of the seminar was Seahorses are unusual - Epilepsy is not.
Dr. Moran spoke about
diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy and Dr. Kanagasooriam spoke about the role
of GP with a special interest in Epilepsy. Sue Routledge
led two sessions the first on the role of the Epilepsy Nurse and Rescue
medications. Stephanie Orridge and Helen Rose were able to talk about their
first hand experiences of having epilepsy and the day finished with a question
session.
We distributed a
considerable volume of brochures including many for Epilepsy HERE.
We hope they will arrange
other similar events in the South East to raise
awareness.
Registered as a Charity No. 1079172
Independence through the Voluntary Action of Kent's Elders
Welcome to INVOKE!
An East Kent Adult Social Services Project that supports East Kent
residents to live independently by delivering local community services to
their door as well as directly supporting persons with long term
conditions. The project is funded through the Partnerships for Older
People Projects (POPP's), a Department of Health Funding opportunity that
runs for two years ending in March 2009.
POPP pilots are testing new forms of service provision, which can improve
the health, well being, and independence of older people.
These services work with and for older people to promote healthy active
ageing, independence, a sense of well being and the ability to participate
fully in their communities. They are beneficial because they help people
avoid the need to go into hospital or a care home, wherever possible. They
provide the right support and care at the right time, closer to home
leading to more healthy years of life.
The POPP programme nationally is managed by DH and is awarding £60million
ring-fenced funding of up to two years to 29 partnerships across the
country during 2006-8, with a view to testing a range of models and
identifying effective approaches. These could be extended across England
in different health and social care communities. INVOKE is a
multi-partnership project that includes Voluntary Sector Organisations,
Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust and Kent Adult Social
Services.
The services are:
Community Matron Support Workers (CMSW):
employed by the Primary Care Trust this role embraces a specialist worker
who is skilled in health and social care, working with people who are
under the care of Community Matrons due to their Long Term Condition.
Access to the CMSW is only via the direct assessment of the Community
Matrons who will case manage the user with the support of the CMSW's Their duties include
rehabilitation, venepuncture and Telehealth monitoring. They will work
closely to deliver the Whole System Demonstrator project in regards to
Telehealth monitoring.
Community Information and Liaison Assistant (CILA):
A voluntary sector worker who will:
:develop a District specific Information Resource, a directory of
services that will be placed in community hubs, central places
identified in that district that support walk-ins and are thus directly
accessible to its residents.
and
: facilitate persons to receive health promotion advice by running
health promotion group events as well as sign-posting persons to other
services. These will be run on a group basis, based on the needs
identified.
Care Navigator (CN):
A voluntary sector worker who supports individual choice and control
through a series of contacts that explore the potential resolution to
their need/problem, enabling the service user to make an informed choice
as to which solution best meets their need.
Supported by Public and Patient involvement which has included direct
membership as Development Group and Project Board members as well as
innovative roles as tender and interview panel members.
If you wish to know more about the project please email either: Dawn
Woodward INVOKE Administrator on dawn.woodward @Kent .gov.uk or
INVOKE Project Manager on invoke01@kent.gov.uk
this website is 
