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22.01.10                                                                                 How can you help the PA? Click here

Welcome to all of our new members and E-members

This week the Patients Association featured on Radio 4 You and Yours Woman's Hour in a discussion on primary care. To listen to the discussion click on the links below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/01/2010_03_wed.shtml

We are still recruiting for a West Midlands focus group, click the link below to find out more.

 This week...

1. NHS Constitution becomes law

2.  NHS England is more "efficient" than rest of UK

3. Child prescription errors highlighted

4. London healthcare ‘heads towards crisis’, say doctors

5. Postcode lottery for arthritis patients

Opportunity to take part in West Midlands Focus Groups

1. NHS Constitution becomes law

On the 21st of Jan 2009 the NHS Constitution was first published. One year later the NHS Constitution has become law. This means that in the future all NHS organisations, including private and 3rd sector providers of services to the NHS will be obligated to consider the provisions of the NHS Constitution when undertaking decisions and actions. Andy Burnham Secretary for Health said “This landmark document gives patients and staff real power to know what they can expect and what they can demand – demands that cannot go unchecked by the NHS from today.”

The NHS Constitution sets out the broad purpose, principles and values of the NHS and outlines a number of rights and pledges for patients including a legal right to access NHS services, drugs and treatments approved by NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence). The constitution also provides patients with a choice in relation to where they receive treatment as well as an assurance that patients will be treated with dignity and respect.

 A copy of the NHS Constitution for England is available to download from the Department of Health Website at:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_093419

PA Director Katherine Murphy said "We're still not clear how patients can actually use these new legal rights-beyond seeking a judicial review, which of course, is not something most people can do."

The Government is still seeking views from interested partied concerning the NHS Constitution. The consultation document NHS Constitution: a consultation on new patient rights seeks views on the Government’s proposals for creating new patient rights and includes the rights currently contained in the NHS Constitution and does not close until the 5th of Feb 2010.

Other patient rights that are currently being considered for inclusion in the Constitution include:
o    evening and weekend access to GPs;
o    access to NHS dentistry;
o    Personal health budgets;
o    The choice to die at home, and;
o    diagnostics and test results for cancer within 1 week of seeing a GP.

To take part, visit www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_108012

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2. NHS England is more "efficient" than rest of UK

The independent charity The Nuffield Trust has recently released findings from a report which looked at health care services across the UK. The report which looks at the funding and performance of healthcare systems across the UK before and after devolution highlighted the stark differences in performance and provision of NHS services with in each UK jurisdiction

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The report found that Scotland performed less well than anywhere else on almost every measure examined. The NHS in Scotland was also found to have the highest rate of spending and the greatest number of health care staff (including hospital doctors, GPs and nurses) per person. The NHS in England had the lowest expenditure and the least number of health care staff. Both Wales and Northern Ireland were reported as having significant waiting times. Overall England was held to make better use of its resources in terms of delivering higher levels of activity, crude productivity of its staff and lower waiting times.

The Director of the Nuffield Trust, Jennifer Dixon said, “The research raises important questions about the efficiency of care across the devolved nations. A key question for the NHS in all four countries, especially in the current economic climate, must be whether or not value for money is being obtained."

PA Policy Director Kieran Mullan said "We must remember there is more to a good health service than how many operations get carried out. Because of the target system we have seen vast increases in activity in the English NHS which has definately benefited many patients and reduced long waits for some, but that doesn't equate to a high quality health care experience. I think we need to be very careful about making wide ranging assumptions based on these statistics."

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 3. Child prescription errors highlighted

A study by the University of London’s School of Pharmacy has revealed that 13.2% of prescriptions made for children contained an error with up to a tenth of these involving children being given either too much or too little.

41% of errors involved incomplete prescriptions with many simply having no dosage written. 24% involved doctors using confusing abbreviations while a further 11% involved the wrong dose being given. The study also found problems with the way nearly one fifth of drugs were administered.

Professor Ian Wong, who led the study, did acknowledge that ‘prescribing for children is very difficult’ and that most errors ‘would not cause serious harm, but some are potentially fatal.’

One alarming example, a six-month old baby was prescribed 5mg of Morphine, at least 50 times the appropriate dose of 96 mcg. Another involved a child being given a prescription for anti-convulsants, to treat epilepsy, that was 10 times the appropriate amount.

Prescribing for children is obviously more complex than for adults, who are given standard, tested doses. A child’s age, size and weight must all be taken in to account and many drugs that are suitable for adults are not recommended for use on children.

Vanessa Bourne, Head of Special Projects at the Patients Association, said that:
“Every patient will find this study very disturbing. This is a critical area of patient safety which should be every hospital’s top priority. The difficulties of individual prescribing for children are well known but we should all be concerned that such fundamental and potentially life threatening errors seem not to be reported as a matter of course, and that the full range of expertise – doctors, nurses and above all pharmacists – within a hospital is not being used. This imbalance of professional input, revealed in the report, must be rectified urgently.”

The report can be downloaded in pdf format from the School of Pharmacy’s website link below:

http://www.pharmacy.ac.uk/errors.html 

4. London healthcare ‘heads towards crisis’, say doctors

The NHS in London faces budget cuts of up to £5 billion over the next 7 years according to a new report by the British Medical Association.

The report, entitled “London’s NHS on the brink”, predicted that London would suffer the worst of the budget cuts expected from 2011 onwards and criticises NHS London for the following targets:
o    Reducing A&E visits by 60% and outpatient visits at hospitals by 55%.
o    Diverting millions patients to clinics that have yet to be built or ‘unproven polysystems’,
o    Forcing “wide scale cutbacks and closures” by cutting up to £1.1bn from the London hospitals budget,
o    Reducing staffing in ‘non-acute services’, such as community services for older people and district nurses, by 66%
o    Cutting GP appointment times by 33%

NHS London defended their proposals, arguing that “to give people leading expert care we also need to centralise some services to create, for example, dedicated stroke and trauma units”, adding that this would “save hundreds of lives every year”.

PA Policy Director Kieran Mullan said "This kind of worry for patients is likely to become more and more common and the NHS tries to save money by transforming care. The NHS must involve local populations and ensure they understand changes and agree they will be beneficial. The common change is to centralise services. NHS managers often don't appreciate how much patients and their carers value being able to visit their relative."

To download the report visit the website below:

http://www.bma.org.uk/representation/local_representation/regional_councils/lrcreportlondonsnhsonthebrink.jsp?page=1

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5. Postcode lottery for arthritis patients

  A new arthritis drug has been approved for patients in Scotland after being ruled too expensive for England by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) now recommends that RoActemra, also known as Tocilizumab, be taken with MTX in order to treat the symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis when other treatments have expired.NICE judged late last year that the £9,000 per patient per year cost of RoActemra was not cost effective enough to be available on the NHS in England and Wales.

At the same time, NICE also reversed its earlier position on another Rheumatoid Arthritis drug after agreeing a deal with the makers of Cimzia to allow NHS patients a free 3 month trial, after which the NHS would pick up the cost for those patients who have responded to the medication.This deal effectively cuts the cost of the first year of Cizmia from £8,580 to £5,005 but does not negate the effect on patients of denying RoActemra on the NHS.

Ailsa Bosworth, of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, said “this is the first time a new rheumatoid arthritis treatment has been approved by NICE in over two years – and could make a big difference to patients’ day to day lives”.

PA Policy Director Kieran Mullan said "This is yet another example of the confusing postcode lottery for patients. It seems unjust that people paying the same taxes are entitled to different treatments depending on where they live."

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Opportunity to take part in Focus Groups

The Patients Association would like to hold some focus groups this year in the West Midlands region. Anyone interest in taking part should be emailed to events@patients-association.com. Any questions should also be sent to the events@patients-association.com email address.

We currently expect this event to place at a central Birmingham location on the morning of Thursday 4th February.

The Patients Association always strongly encourages patients and the public to take up any opportunity to put forward your views on issues affecting all users of the NHS. Running focus groups also help us generate income vital for supporting the charity.

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How can you help?

The Patients Association is only able to work hard speaking up for patients with the support of our members. Our free E-membership is incredibly important as it allows us to keep you informed about our work and campaigns.  Your continued support is crucial for us to be able to continue our work.  

Please forward this email to your friends, family and colleagues and encourage them to join as a free E-member at http://www.patients-association.org.uk/Join-Us.  

Full membership and donations provide direct support for our work. If you also wish to become a full member for only £10 a year you can now sign-up online at http://patients-association.org.uk/Membership-Subscription or email mailbox@patients-association.com for details. You can make a donation here http://www.patients-association.org.uk/Support-the-PA

You can also show us your support by leaving your comments on our new Twitter page:  

http://twitter.com/PatientsAssoc

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www.patients-association.com/Join-Us