Archive for July, 2015

District Nurses from Liverpool Community Health (LCH) NHS Trust are giving advice on how to avoid stumbles and trips in the home.

Falls represent over half of all hospital admissions for accidental injury, and can cause serious injury at any time of life. Every year, a third of all people aged 65 or over suffer a fall and the risk increases with age.

Kim Reid, a District Nurse in LCH says: “Falls are one of the most common accidents in the home. Not only can they lead to serious injury, but also to a loss of confidence and independence. We want to make sure that patients are given all the help and support they need to be safe at home.

“Simple steps like clearing hallways of clutter and wearing well-fitting, supportive footwear can ensure that the home remains a safe, accessible environment for those most vulnerable to slips, trips and falls.”

Top tips on how to prevent these very common accidents from happening include:

• Mop up any spillages immediately
• Remove any clutter, trailing wires or frayed carpet
• Wear well-fitting shoes that are in good condition and support the ankle
• Look after your feet by trimming your toenails regularly and visiting the GP or Chiropodist with any problems
• Avoid loose-fitting, trailing clothes that could trip you up
• Organise your home so that stretching, bending and climbing are kept to a minimum
• If there is something you may struggle to do safely on your own, ask a relative or neighbour for assistance

For more information and advice on how to avoid slips and falls, please visit our website: www.liverpoolcommunityhealth.nhs.uk.

Health commissioners in Southport and Formby are inviting people to their July governing body meeting to hear about local healthcare.

The Governing Body meeting for NHS Southport and Formby Commissioning Group (CCG) is held bi-monthly.

It is a chance for people to find out what the CCG is currently working on and to hear the doctors, nurses and other health professionals, who make up the governing body, discuss how well local health services are performing.

The meeting will take place on Wednesday 29 July at Family Life Centre, Ash St., Southport.

The meeting begins at 1pm, with an open public session where people can ask questions shortly before the formal session gets underway.

Anyone with an interest in local health is welcome to come along and is asked to call to confirm their attendance.

Papers for the meetings can be found in advance of the governing body meeting our CCG website.

An innovative new project is making a positive difference to the lives of borough residents affected by problem hoarding.

The award winning Remove to Improve initiative, run by the Fire Support Network charity, helps people to declutter their homes when excessive hoarding begins to affect their ability to lead functional lives, and has an impact on their physical and mental wellbeing. 

It is funded by the NHS South Sefton CCG and NHS Southport and Formby CCG Voluntary Community and Faith Fund, managed by Sefton CVS.

Partnership working is the key to the success of Remove to Improve, which was established as a pilot project in Sefton and Wirral in 2014.

Fire Support Network personnel work alongside staff and volunteers from Age Concern, Sefton CVS, social services, GPs, occupational therapists, mental health teams, charities and landlords on tackling the problem.

In each case the aim is to improve the health and wellbeing of the client by helping them to reduce the amount of clutter in their homes, remove hazards and access a range of different services offered by partners.

The emphasis is on providing a bespoke package of support that meets the individual needs of each resident, with follow-up help available from trained volunteers who befriend the client and support them on an ongoing basis.

Remove to Improve has been so successful that it has already landed a prestigious national award.

It was named Community Fire Safety Project of the Year in the 2014 IFSEC Security & Fire Excellence Awards.

Now staff from the Fire Support Network believe the project could become a model of best practice implemented regionally and nationally.

Community Welfare Manager Karen Lavery explained: “We developed our approach after dealing with various aspects of the issue of hoarding for some eight years. We now believe we have a multi-agency model that really works.”

Linda Mitchell, Chief Executive of the Fire Support Network, added: “Remove to Improve has been very successful in improving the quality of life of many people in Sefton and Wirral for whom hoarding has become a problem.

“This success – and the award – is the result of the hard work and commitment of our staff, our partners and all the volunteers involved with the project.”

*  Referrals are still being accepted to Remove to Improve. For more details contact Karen Lavery on or email .

Southport and Formby CCG are pledging their support to a national campaign, Sign up to Safety.

Sign up to Safety is a national patient safety campaign to help the NHS in England build a safer NHS and address the problem of unsafe care and avoidable harm.

So far, over 200 organisations have pledged support and are committed to improve the safety of healthcare through personalised Safety Improvement Plans. These outline the actions that will be taken in response to five Sign up to Safety pledges.

Debbie Fagan, chief nurse for the CCG, said: “We want everyone in Southport and Formby to have access to the safest and highest quality healthcare, and by joining the Sign up to Safety campaign we are reinforcing our commitment to this goal. We work closely with service providers, like hospitals and community trusts, to make sure they reduce the risk of avoidable harm by learning from good practice elsewhere and by sharing their experiences with other healthcare organisations whenever possible to make sure the services they provide on our behalf are the best they can be.”

Suzette Woodward, Sign up to Safety campaign director, said: “Our ambition is for the whole NHS in England to become the safest healthcare system in the world and Southport and Formby CCG is playing a critical part in helping to achieve this.

“We are committed to supporting the NHS to place patient safety first. Patient safety is the organising principle of high quality healthcare; only safe healthcare services are truly efficient, effective and able to offer the best experience to patients and carers. We will allow people to work on the things that matter to them and keep local solutions localised but enable shared learning nationally for others to adapt.”

The five Sign up to Safety pledges are:

• Put safety first. Commit to reducing avoidable harm in the NHS by half and make public the goals and plans developed locally.
• Continually learn. Be more resilient to risks as an organisation, by acting on the feedback from patients and by constantly measuring and monitoring how safe services are.
• Be Honest. Be transparent with people about progress to tackle patient safety issues and support staff to be candid with patients and their families if something goes wrong.
• Collaborate. Take a leading role in supporting local collaborative learning, so that improvements are made across all of the local services that patients use.
• Be Supportive. Help people understand why things go wrong and how to put them right. Give staff the time and support to improve and celebrate progress.

Public Health England recently launched its ‘Be Clear on Cancer’ campaign in association with Cancer Research UK.

The campaign is aimed at women aged 70 and over to drive awareness of the risk of breast cancer amongst this age group and to increase their knowledge of lesser-known breast cancer symptoms.

Virginia Wade, OBE, British former professional tennis player is supporting the campaign comments: “I’ve just turned 70, which makes this campaign really relevant to me and women like me. The statistics speak for themselves, one in three women who get breast cancer are over 70.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in England. Sadly everyone knows someone who has been touched by breast cancer, which is why I’m supporting this campaign. I want to say to all women over 70: don’t assume you’re past it. If you notice any changes to your breasts, tell your doctor.

Family and friends – please do encourage loved ones to seek medical help if they say they have symptoms or have noticed any changes.  Some women feel they are too old for certain things, but unfortunately breast cancer isn’t one of them.”

For more information on the campaign, or to check out the statistics for yourself, please visit the Cancer Research UK website. An advertisement is also available on YouTube as well as a video leaflet that has been adapted with British Sign Language.

Two doctors have won a national patient safety prize for their work preventing kidney injury in older people.

Dr Andrew Falzon, a Foundation Year 1 doctor, and Consultant Urological Surgeon Mr Rahul Mistry, won the Patient Safety in Care of Older People Award with their projects “Breaking AKI” and “Ur-ine-volved” at the Patient Safety Congress and Awards held in Birmingham on Monday.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs when there is sudden damage to the kidneys. This will cause a reduction in their function which can be temporary or permanent if not identified early. It particularly affects people over 65 but also those with long-term medical conditions such as heart failure and diabetes.

Experts estimate AKI is responsible for one-in-five emergency admissions to hospital and up to 100,000 hospital deaths of which nearly a quarter could be prevented.

Dr Falzon and Mr Mistry who are both doctors at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, developed a three-pronged approach that:

• Educates and involves patients
• Promotes early recognition of symptoms
• Helps with the management of AKI in hospital

 “By empowering patients through education, patients can assess their own hydration status through their urine colour and quantity as well as identify any symptoms that should be brought to the attention of a medical professional,” said Dr Falzon.

Mr Mistry added: “As doctors, we’re always telling patients to drink more but it’s less straight-forward to advise how much.”

“The tools we have developed include information sheets which allow self-directed patient education. We are both delighted the work has been recognised at these prestigious awards.”

Have you or someone you know had recent experience of using community dermatology services in Sefton? If so, healthcare leaders in the borough want to hear from you.

Community based dermatology services are commissioned by NHS Southport and Formby and NHS South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) who regularly review their quality to make sure they constantly offer the highest standards of care for local people.

The CCGs know that patients who use the current service highly rate their experience but the healthcare commissioners want to find out more.

Dr Rob Caudwell, the CCGs’ GP lead for dermatology, said: “Speaking to patients about their experiences of using our services helps us to identify what works well and if we need to make changes to further improve them, so I’d encourage anyone who has recently been treated by community dermatology to get in touch and tell us what they think, we’d welcome their more detailed feedback.”

The service currently operates 13 clinics a week across four community venues in Sefton, diagnosing and treating patients for an extensive range of skin conditions. People are generally referred to the service by their doctor for things like severe eczema that can’t be treated by their practice. It also provides minor surgery for minor skin related problems. The current contract comes up for renewal on 1 April 2016 and all the views gained as part of this review will be used by the CCGs to refine the service.

Over the next couple of weeks, the CCGs will also be attending a number of community dermatology clinics and inviting patients and carers to take part in a survey.

Anyone else who would like to complete a survey should contact the Engagement Team on , or email before Friday 17 July 2015.

If you are thinking about growing your family through adoption or fostering, Sefton Fostering and Adoption Service is holding one of its regular free info sessions at Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre on 15 July at 6.30pm.

It is a great opportunity to listen to Sefton’s experts, ask them questions and chat all things adoption and fostering over a nice drink.

To find out more, contact Sefton Fostering and Adoption Service FREEPHONE or by email:

More people in Southport, Formby and West Lancashire than ever before are surviving longer than a year after being diagnosed with cancer, latest figures show.

MPs on the All Party Parliamentary Group on cancer reported the areas showed the most improvement nationally in one year cancer survival rates between 2011 and 2012.

Patients surviving cancer for more than 12 months in Southport and Formby improved from 70% to 72% and in West Lancashire up from 70.1% to 72.2%.

Dr Paul Mansour, clinical lead for cancer and deputy medical director at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, said: “I am delighted to see that our areas are the two most improved areas in the entire country for one year cancer survival. 

“This is very good news for our patients because these improvements reflect earlier diagnosis and earlier, better treatment of cancer.  The figures also speak volumes about the hard work and professionalism of our fantastic cancer teams, our GPs and NHS commissioning colleagues.”

People who survive cancer after one year are more likely to be alive five years later, making the NHS almost as good as Nordic countries which have some of the best cancer survival rates in Europe.

However, where the UK is significantly weaker than Nordic countries is in making sure patients reach the important one year anniversary.

Early diagnosis is a key factor in treating cancer effectively and it is believed many people leave it too late, reducing their chances of surviving for more than a year.

For example, around a quarter of cancer patients in England are diagnosed as emergency cases which means they are on average twice as likely to die within a year compared to people diagnosed by an urgent GP referral.

Dr Graeme Allan, Macmillan GP and Cancer Lead for NHS Southport and Formby CCG:  “It is extremely gratifying to see that the work we are doing as a CCG, together with the hospital and our wider partners, is beginning to make a real difference to the lives of our patients.

“We know there is more to do but we are clearly making good progress. To strengthen this further, we are putting new systems in place to make sure that people coming to see their GP with concerns have much quicker access to cancer testing, which we know makes a real difference to their treatment, recovery and survival.”

NHS Southport and Formby Clinical Commissioning Group, the Macmillan Cancer Information Centre and the Trust are at a free health and wellbeing clinic in Southport on Thursday 9 July.

 

Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust is joining forces with Macmillan Cancer Information at a free health and well-being clinic in Southport on Thursday 9 July.

The event at Southport Theatre and Convention Centre is an opportunity to find out how to access local support, information and advice to help patients and their families adjust to life with and beyond cancer. It will run from 4pm to 6.30pm.

Jackie Brunton, the Trust’s Cancer Services Manager/Lead cancer Nurse, said: “We’re delighted to join forces again with the Macmillan Cancer Information and Support Service, building on the success of previous health and well-being clinics.  We would also be delighted to welcome friends and family to come along as we understand how a cancer diagnosis affects not just the person with cancer.”

Cancer nurse specialists will be on hand to offer advice and support along with local organisations including Sefton Active Lifestyles, local benefits advisors and Sefton/West Lancs Carers Support.

Information on fitness, walking groups, diet, benefits, stopping smoking, and carers’ support will also be available as well as the opportunity to talk to other people living with and affected by cancer. Refreshments will be provided and interactive sessions will include:

• A presentation on the benefits of physical activity during and after cancer 
• A tai chi taster session
• Mini make-up classes from Boots No7
• Healthy food demonstrations
• Hand massages from Sefton OPERA (Older Persons Enabling Resource and Action)

Barbara Flowers, Macmillan Cancer Information and Support Centre Manager, said: “We understand how patients can often feel they lose the safety net of support they receive while attending the hospital regularly for treatment.

“These events are designed to help people to return to everyday activities and make the most of the good things in their life. If you have any questions, we are here to help.”

Places are free but limited, booking is essential. For information or to book a place contact Helen, Barbara or Sarah at the Southport Macmillan Information and Support Centre on or

A further event will be held on Thursday 12 November between 1pm and 3.30pm.