Heartwww.heartofengland.nhs.uk & SoulAutumn 2014 Surgery proposals - how to have your say Baby joy after 13 miscarriages Trust appoints new Medical Director June Whitfield on her absolutely fabulous fitness regime Celebs Butterfly promote sepsis Arm yourself Emergency against flu Awards Treatment awareness p14 p7 p14 p15 Birmingham Heartlands - Solihull - Good Hope - Birmingham Chest Clinic - Solihull Community Services A FEW WORDS A few words from Trust chief executive, Dr Mark Newbold Get in touch We welcome your feedback on all of our HEFT services. Contact: 0121 424 0808 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm) Welcome to the autumn bring staff, patients and the issue of the magazine for Heart local community with us to of England NHS Foundation make sure the solutions are the patientservices@ Trust’s members. With the right ones. heartofengland.nhs.uk colder months come the We want to provide colds and bugs which spread opportunities to contribute to amongst local communities. discussion to generate ideas We’ve seen a surge in demand on how we can improve our for our services and will be services. Please take time to www.twitter.com/ preparing for further demand read the article in this issue of heartofengland during the next few months. Heart & Soul to see how you This issue has some tips on can have your say on proposals what services are available if for re-designing our surgical you need urgent treatment. services. With a wide range of facilities Hearing what patients think www.heartofengland.nhs.uk that offer out-of-hours support of our services is valuable and treatment across the as feedback helps us find region, A&E doesn’t have to be out what works and what the place to go for treatment. improvements can be made in Investment in adapting our our Hospitals. Please take a services for the changing needs look at the different ways to Patient services department of our patients continues to be get in touch and you can also Main entrance a driver for us, and efforts to contact me directly on twitter Heartlands Hospital ensure more patients receive on @drmarknewbold. See my Bordesley Green East care away from the acute latest diary updates at: www. Birmingham setting is one area we continue marknewbold.com/ceo-diary. B9 5SS to work on. It’s important we 2 www.heartofengland.nhs.uk SURGERY RECONFIGURATION Re-designing our surgical services We need your help To ensure that every patient gets the best treatment and has the best possible outcome from their care, we are required to change our services, as is the case for many NHS providers across the country. This is in line with national Improve quality – every NHS By changing how and where guidance from senior doctors and organisation must improve how we deliver some of our services, professional organisations such as patients feel about their care and we can make sure that all of our the Royal College of Surgeons and strive for the best possible results existing surgery services can be the Royal College of Physicians. from their treatment. offered safely and to the highest And so a project team that standards in our hospitals. This includes hospital staff and local Provide more care – more and work will provide the grounding to people has been asked to work more people are coming to live in continue to develop and improve together on new ideas that will our area, and living longer – we these services in the future. We help us meet the changing needs must be able to give everyone the are committed to working in of our communities. care they need to stay well, or to partnership with local people to get well. design patient-centred solutions. What we hope to achieve: The project team are working Deliver services that put together to consult with all people at the heart of what stakeholders, staff and members we do – we need to re-organise of the public to gather everyone’s what we do to make sure patients views and consider all the options are always put first. to make sure that we can: Heart&Soul Autumn 2014 3 SURGERY RECONFIGURATION What we are currently proposing Resulting benefits • Reduced waiting times We are looking to make changes services for its own local people. for emergency surgery to a minimal number of surgical We propose to invest in each of • Reduced waiting times specialities so most patients would our three local hospitals to make for non-urgent, planned not see any change to their care, sure this happens. Each hospital surgery and number of but still enjoy using some of the would still function as a local cancelled appointments fresher, more modern treatment facility and provide acute care, A&E • Improved experiences and public areas that would be (at Good Hope and Heartlands) and and health outcomes for developed as a result. urgent care (at Solihull), maternity patients Our vision is to make each of our services, some planned surgery • ‘Centres of excellence’ hospitals a centre of excellence in and outpatient appointments. In created (specialist its own right, and give it the staff, addition, each site would take the centres), bringing equipment and facilities it needs lead in providing surgery for its specialist doctors and to specialise more in the things it own range of specialties. Please the latest equipment is already known for. At the same see the chart below detailing the together to provide the time, each hospital would continue proposed specialities for each of very best care to provide all the key local care the hospitals: • The best, safest surgical care in all specialities Heartlands Good Hope Solihull • Keep all the usual services, including A&E, Most emergency Surgical emergency Planned surgery: maternity and diagnostic surgery including assessment • Orthopaedics testing the same orthopaedic trauma Urology emergency surgery • Ophthalmology Upper gastrointestinal • Plus some Planned surgery: emergency surgery general surgery • Obstetrics and gynaecology Planned surgery: • Thoracic • Obstetrics and • Vascular gynaecology • Colorectal • Urology • Paediatric • Upper gastrointestinal • Plus some (UGI) general • Bariatrics (weight loss) surgery • Plus some general surgery ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) to be confirmed 4 www.heartofengland.nhs.uk SURGERY RECONFIGURATION Next steps Date Venue Time 13th October Ramada Hotel, Solihull 10am – 1 pm Because we want to put 1.30pm – 4.30pm 15th October Trinity Centre, Sutton Coldfield patients first in everything 6pm – 9pm we do, we need active St Paul’s Conference Centre 2pm – 5pm 16th October participation from as many Bordesley Green 6pm – 9pm local people as possible. Please tell us what you think. You 17th October Chelmsley Wood Shopping Centre 9am – 5pm can visit our website at: www. Touchwood Shopping Centre, heartofengland.nhs.uk to 18th October 9am – 5pm Solihull submit your thoughts. A series of public events has also been 20th October St John’s Hotel, Solihull 6pm – 9pm organised for those who want 22nd October Gracechurch Shopping Centre 9am – 6pm to share their views in person. 28th October Ramada Sutton Coldfield 2pm – 8.30pm The event dates are: 20th November Gracechurch Shopping Centre 9am – 6pm 26th November Sutton Coldfield Town Hall 9am – 2pm Please keep an eye out for additional dates as they are confirmed at: www.heartofengland.nhs.uk/surgery-reconfiguration Reconfiguring surgical services – questions answered So, we have been working with staff, patients and members of the 1. Do these planned changes mean any of the three local wider community to look at our hospitals (Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull) will close? options and how we can provide No. All three would stay open, offering all the main services of a most surgical services locally local hospital and some very specialised ones too. We would invest whilst continuing to operate three in all three hospitals. busy hospitals, each providing a range of high quality surgical 2. Are these the only plans you have thought about? services. Creating surgical centres No. Hospital staff have been working with local people for over a of excellence will improve clinical year, thinking about all sorts of ways to improve patient care. These outcomes and patient experience plans have developed gradually, and we believe they are the best whilst enabling most treatments way to improve our services. to continue to take place at a local Hospital, but what does that mean 3. Why should we have surgical centres of for you? Here are some frequently excellence, how does that benefit me? asked questions and answers There is now plenty of evidence that concentrating specialist based on how these proposals resources into one place brings real benefits for patients. It means, would work in practice: for example, that: Heart&Soul Autumn 2014 5 SURGERY RECONFIGURATION - Specialist staff are always on hand when there’s an emergency and to provide on-going care. - Buildings can be purpose-designed with all the equipment available for your specialist needs - Better ways of working are developed and adopted quickly - You have a better experience in hospital - Your recovery is better and faster 4. What should I do if I don’t understand, or I want more details? What if I think the plans are wrong or I have new ideas for you to think about? Please tell us! We want to work with as many people as possible from our local community – patients, carers, doctors (GPs), councillors and anyone else with an interest in caring for local people – to work out the best possible plan. 5. Will I have to travel further? It’s true that, under these proposed changes, there might be the need on some occasions to travel to a different hospital, but only for a surgical procedure.