Integrated Care System staff - help us to help you.

As part of an NHS England funded project we are looking at the possibility of extending access to NHS library services in the county to all staff who work within the Northamptonshire Integrated Care System. This would include staff in:

• Primary care
• Integrated care board
• Social care
• Care homes
• Third / voluntary sector care staff

NHS libraries can support you by:

• Searching the evidence for you
• Training you in information skills
• Providing access to books and journals, in print and online, databases and other online resources
• Offering a place to work or study with 24/7 access
• And much more...

To understand what the problems are staff in the county are facing with finding information, and what you already have access to, we have created a short survey that we are asking anyone who works in the integrated care system (not NHFT, NGH or KGH staff) to complete. 

It should only take a few minutes and would help us to collect evidence to support a business case to the Integrated Care Board.

You can find the survey here: https://forms.office.com/e/uSaZf91h60

Many thanks for your help.

Web site for the month: Critical Care Northampton

We have picked a site with a local connection this month, Critical Care Northampton. The site was founded by Northampton General Hospital consultant Jonny Wilkinson and is a great resource for anyone interested in FOAMed (Free Open Access Medical Education), emergency care, ITU, anaesthesia and POCUS (Point of Care Ultra Sound).

https://criticalcarenorthampton.com

With two other consultant colleagues acting as editors, the site features a variety of content and resources, practical advice, news and reviews including:

• ICU emergencies
• Guidelines
• How to guides
• Downloadable resources
• Evidence and research articles
•  Medical calculators
• Mnemonics
• And a lot more...

Critical Care Northampton is a great resource for consultants, junior doctors and medical students, designed to "keep you out of trouble" as the site says, it's well worth a visit.

A Modern Hospital: Memories of Princess Marina Hospital

Princess Marina Hospital in Northampton was one of the last NHS learning disability hospitals to be built. It was opened in 1972 and at the time was the most modern facility in the whole of Europe. The hospital finally closed in 1995.

Research carried out by the Finding Out Group (four people with learning disabilities who had research training) looked at the perspective of nursing and other staff from Northamptonshire Healthcare who worked at Princess Marina.

This is a oral history project supported by NHS nurses (many of whom worked at Princess Marina themselves) and authored by Jan Walmsley (Visiting Professor in the History of Learning Disability at the Open University).

The booklet is available for free online at the Centre for Welfare Reform or you can download a PDF here.

There is also a Power Point (download) of the findings with lots of photos on the Open University's web site. 

Local Health Profiles 2015 for Northamptonshire now available

Data for Northamptonshire

Public Health of England have published the Local Health Profiles for Northamptonshire. The
profiles draw together information which includes:

• An ‘At a glance’ summary description of people’s health in the area, which includes information on locally identified priorities
• Maps and charts showing how the health of the area compares to the national view and information on health inequalities within the local authority

The Health Profiles website also provides interactive maps and charts for users to create their own views of the data, and links to further supporting and relevant products.

You can find all of the profiles for Northamptonshire on the Health Profiles site.

Alternatively you can find the profiles for individual areas here:

• Corby
• Daventry
• East Northamptonshire
• Kettering
• Northampton
• Northamptonshire
• South Northamptonshire
• Wellingborough      

You can also find the updated Local Alcohol Profiles for England here.

Local health profiles for 2013 published

Public Health England have published details of the local health profiles for England. The profiles give a snapshot of health related issues for each county and local authority area.

There are also interactive maps on the site that show a number of different indicators, down to district level (and a guide is available to help you get the most from them).

Within each profile you can find information on:

• Social issues, including deprivation, crime education levels
• Children & young people's health, including alcohol, obesity and teenage pregnancy
• Adult health and lifestyle
• Disease and poor health
• Life expectancy and causes of death

You can find all the profiles for the different areas of Northamptonshire here.

Withdrawal of funding for Library Services for primary care & commissioning staff

Following the closure of the PCT, the successor commissioning organisations have decided not to continue to fund the Library Service for staff in primary care/general practice, commissioning or public health, given the financial constraints they are under.   We understand this decision has already been communicated to commissioning staff, and it was approved by the LMC on behalf of GP Practices.

Given the decision to cease funding the service, sadly we are unable to continue to provide it at no cost.

The service will cease to be available for new requests from the 1st of October.  GP or Commissioning staff who have items on loan from us will be able to keep them until the due date (even if this is after the 1st of October). Likewise we will honour any requests for information or training already received, but will not be able to take on new work after the end of this month.

We will also be withdrawing access to all locally funded electronic resources that we previously provided via Athens. GP and Commissioning staff will still be able to access some material (including databases) through the national core content list which is purchased for all NHS staff in England, but the majority of resources will no longer be available after the service is withdrawn.

If you have any queries about, or wish to discuss this decision, please contact the LMC in the first instance (enquiries@northantslmc.co.uk).

NHS England in their CCG Bulletin on the 11th of July  stated that Libraries “are an integral part of the core business of the NHS” (see item 16), so we would be willing to discuss arrangements for individual organisations within the county who were interested in preserving access to the Library Service for their staff.

Longer Lives - premature mortality data

The Longer Lives interactive atlas

The Longer Lives project from Public Health England makes mortality data available to everyone.

Currently the site focuses on the four most common causes of mortality in England – heart disease and stroke, lung disease, liver disease, and cancer.

The site enables the comparison of premature mortality data  between all local authority areas, but also between areas of a similar size and make up. The project is at an early stage and more data will follow, including data for county districts.

Longer Lives highlights inequalities in premature mortality across the country. It also aims to provide examples of interventions that have been effective at the local level in reducing premature mortality rates. Currently there is information on cancer, heart disease, liver disease, and lung disease with more to follow.

Northamptonshire currently ranks as worse than the national average (72 out of 150), but the picture is more mixed than the figures suggest, with heart and liver disease and stroke actually better than the national average, but cancer and lung disease worse.

Dr Foster Hospital Guide 2012

The Dr Foster 2012 Hospital Guide is now available, showing how all the acute trusts in England are rated.

Efficiency & Mortality scores for all acute trusts

 

Here are the reports on the trusts in Northamptonshire:

• Kettering General Hospital
• Northampton General Hospital
• BMI Three Shires (private)

You can read or download the whole report which covers the current state of the NHS, or just the My Hospital Guide Efficiency & Mortality 2012 

You can also search by trust, individual hospital or surgical procedure, and use your own postcode to identify organisations nearest to you.

Northamptonshire NHS YouTube channels

The NHS in Northamptonshire have a number of YouTube channels where you can find a number of locally produced videos.

The Northamptonshire Healthcare channel features service user stories and a video about Berrywood Hospital, amongst others.

Northampton General Hospital does not have a channel of it's own, but there are plenty of videos featuring the Trust to be found on YouTube, including the development of the sepsis box, the new cancer treatment unit and information on the OU pre-registration nursing course.

On the NHS Northamptonshire and Milton Keyenes channel  you can find over 30 videos, covering such diverse topics as personal health budgets, and the soon-to-be-infamous, Gangnam style disco hand washing video which was made to celebrate Global Hand Washing Day and features NGH and NHFT staff in disco mode!


YouTube - not just cute pets and people falling off things!

The real cost of alcohol: map of alchol harm across England

Photo by Richmeyer on Flickr

Treating the effects of alcohol abuse costs the NHS £2.7 billion each year (£34 million in Northamptonshire). Alcohol Concern have produced an interactive map of alcohol harm for England  showing how this occurs.

The map gives a breakdown of information on alcohol misuse by local authority area, including the number of people drinking too much, alcohol related hospital admissions and associated costs, mortality and more. Statistics are also broken down by gender and age and there is the facility to compare different areas.

Local health profiles published for every county and council in England

The Public Health Observatories have published details of local health needs in every county and council in England for 2012, alongside tools to help users analyse the data. There are also interactive maps giving access to the data at a number of different levels.

You can find all the profiles for Northamptonshire here.

Northamptonshire child health and wellbeing information

Child & Maternal Health

As part of the national Child and Maternal Health Observatory’s (ChiMat) work with the East of England Public Health Observatory, updated Local Authority Child Health Profiles have been published. These provide a snapshot of child health and wellbeing in March 2012 and are designed to help you improve the health of children and tackle health inequalities by giving easy to digest information about the current picture of child health in your local area.

Each profile provides two types of information: background demographic information about the children in each area; and comparative analysis with other local authorities both nationally and more locally.

A number of changes and additions to the 2012 profiles compared with those issued in 2011. These include:

·         More information about mental health

·         Introduction of breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks where data are available

·         Trend information about hospital admissions for alcohol

·         Comparisons with statistical neighbours looking at teenage conceptions, teenage mothers, MMR immunisation and breastfeeding initiation

You can find the Northamptonshire profiles here:

• 2012 profile
• 2011 profile

 The site also offers an interactive profiles for local areas, and as well as child health, these also cover Healthy Schools, infant mortality and breastfeeding.

Local Health Profiles 2011 for Northamptonshire now available

The Public Health Observatories of England have published the Local Health Profiles for Northamptonshire. The profiles draw together information which includes:

• An ‘At a glance’ summary description of people’s health in the area, which includes information on locally identified priorities
• Maps and charts showing how the health of the area compares to the national view and information on health inequalities within the local authority
• Charts presenting changes in death rates over a 10 year period, compared to rates for England
• A 'spine chart' health summary showing the difference in health between the area and the regional / England average

The Health Profiles website also provides interactive maps and charts for users to create their own views of the data, and links to further supporting and relevant products.

You can find all of the profiles for Northamptonshire on the Association of Public Health Observatories site.

Alternatively you can find the profiles for individual areas here:

• Corby
• Daventry
• East Northamptonshire
• Kettering
• Northampton
• Northamptonshire
• South Northamptonshire
• Wellingborough