| Welcome to the programme newsletter | Welcome to the latest edition of Humber Acute Services programme stakeholder newsletter. In it you'll find the latest news and updates about the programme, alongside information about how you can get involved, share your ideas or ask questions.
We hope you will find this update helpful and interesting. | |
| Our Vision for the Future |
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Hospital Services for the Future
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The Humber Acute Services programme is developing plans and proposals for the future of hospital services across the Humber. But the programme is part of a much bigger picture and wider ambitions for change and improved health and care across the Humber.
Our vision for the future is that:
- Everyone across the Humber will have access to the best possible healthcare and opportunities to help them live healthy, happy lives now and in the future
- People will only use hospitals if they really need to
- More care and treatment people need will be offered in other places – e.g. GP surgeries, at home or on the high street
- Care will be provided by a flexible, committed and valued workforce
- Local people will be able to access state of the art treatments from highly skilled, specialist staff
- The use of technology – where appropriate – will be an increasingly important feature in the delivery of care and treatment
In the next few issues of our newsletter, we want to highlight some of the developments that are taking place, both in and outside of our hospitals, that contribute to this vision for the future. Some are national programmes others are local initiatives, but in all cases, we are aligning our work with these wider changes.
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| SPOTLIGHT ON - Community Diagnostic Services |
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Transforming Care – Implementing Community Diagnostic Services
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For the last 12 months, organisations in the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (The Partnership) have been working together to draw up plans for the future development of community diagnostic services, in line with national recommendations.
One of the main aims of this programme nationally and locally is to relocate high volume, planned diagnostic services away from hospitals. This is to provide increased capacity and improved accessibility and to relieve some of the pressure within hospitals.
As a first step, a plan was drawn up for a number of enabling developments that could be initiated quickly. This plan was approved in July 2021 and included the following developments:
- Purchase of mobile MRI and CT scanners that will be operated across the Humber and North Yorkshire area by the Partnership.
- Purchase of additional equipment to enhance community diagnostic provision in some of our most deprived areas including Bridlington, Goole and East Hull
- Investment in digital infrastructure to improve connectivity for diagnostic services right across the Humber and North Yorkshire area
Building on these early successes, the Partnership is now putting in place plans to establish Community Diagnostic Centres across the region.
Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) are being established to make it easier for people to receive diagnostic testing and results in a quick, simple and convenient way. These centres can be located anywhere, such as within shopping centres, town centre locations or other areas with good transport links that provide ease of access for the general public.
The development of Community Diagnostic Centres is playing an important role in supporting post-COVID recovery across the NHS by creating additional capacity for diagnostic testing and providing this within dedicated centres that are easy to get to. By providing these services away from busy hospital sites, planned and urgent diagnostic services will be able to be provided more quickly and efficiently, improving the experience for patients who need diagnostic tests. Speeding up the process will also help to reduce the anxiety and risk associated with waiting for a diagnosis.
Within the Humber and North Yorkshire, capital funding of £36m has been allocated initially to support the development of community diagnostic services in the area over the next 3 years. Plans are being developed for the establishment of 6 centres across the region.
A large range of diagnostic testing will be able to be provided at the centres, including, for example:
Imaging - MRI, CT, Ultrasound, X-ray
Physiological Measurement - Echocardiography, ECG, Oximetry, BP monitoring, Spirometry, FeNo testing (asthma), Lung Function testing, Blood gas analysis, Simple Field Tests
Pathology - Phlebotomy, Point of Care Testing, Simple biopsies, BNP testing (heart failure), Urine testing
In order to improve access to services across the whole of the HNY area, diagnostic service provision in a number of existing community-based facilities will also be enhanced. Plans are in place to increase the capacity of mobile imaging services, reducing the requirement for patients to travel to larger centres for MRI and CT scans.
Developing Community Diagnostic Centres and wider community diagnostic services across England is a really important part of the future vision for the NHS and will help to deliver our ambition of delivering more care outside of hospital settings so that people only need to travel to a hospital when they really need to be there.
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Can you help?
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We have been listening to feedback and ideas from people across the Humber over the past 18 months and these have really helped to influence our emerging ideas.
As we develop these ideas for how services could look in the future, we would also like to hear from particular groups within our community, to help us better understand how they may be impacted by any potential changes to acute hospital services. Throughout our work we are seeking to listen to all communities and individuals and reduce health inequalities in the Humber area.
The groups we would particularly like to engage with include:
- People living with serious and enduring mental illness
- People living with poor mental health, including parents and carers.
- Adults and children with learning disabilities or difficulties, including parents and carers.
- People from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds
- People who identify as LGBTQ+
- People affected by homelessness.
How can you help?
- Do you work with or support any of these groups, or know someone who does?
- Do you know of any pre-existing groups we could attend?
- Would you like to be involved and represent the voices of the people you work with?
If you answer 'yes' to any of the above, then please click here to register your interest in hosting or supporting a focus group or other engagement activity over the coming months.
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What about "back-office" services?
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Question:
There are obviously areas where economies of scale and an opportunity to re-evaluate existing ways of working could lead to cost savings and improvements in the service provided.
Are there plans to merge (or significantly integrate) "backroom" services (HR, IT, Learning and Development, etc.) between the two Trusts [HUTH and NLaG]?
Answer:
The short answer is yes. While the primary focus of the Humber Acute Services programme is on designing the most effective clinical pathways and providing great care for our population across the Humber, for some of our smaller service areas Executive Directors of both Trusts are not only looking at how we could achieve economies of scale through integration, but how we make services more resilient and provide greater career opportunities for the staff in those departments – because larger departments are more sustainable, provide more opportunities and offer greater scope for career development.
If we move towards changes that will affect peoples’ jobs, we will go through the proper HR processes to make sure their interests are protected. However, we do expect there could be change in a small but significant number of departments that will make both organisations stronger and will make the jobs of the staff working those departments more satisfying.
Our commitment to greater integration and collaboration applies to both clinical and non-clinical aspects of our organisations and opportunities to improve services through greater integration is something for consideration.
It is also important to note that the NHS nationally is seeing much change in structure through the emerging and formalisation of Integrated Care Systems and we don’t yet know what the full impact of these changes will be.
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Ask A Question
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You can ask a question about any aspect of the programme at any time by using the online question portal or by sending an email.
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We launched our revamped Humber Acute Services programme newsletter in July 2021. Each newsletter includes a range of information about the programme and you can access previous editions by clicking the links below:
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