| In brief |
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust provides community health services in Bexley and Greenwich, and mental health and learning disability services in Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich. We also provide forensic psychiatry and challenging behaviour services for the boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham, and deliver services to nine prisons in Kent.
GP section on Oxleas' website
GPs now have easy access to comprehensive referral and contact information on all Oxleas' services. This includes:
- contact numbers for GPs to use
- service opening times
- referral criteria
- up to date referral forms
Please check out the new section: www.oxleas.nhs.uk/gps/
We welcome your feedback and would also like to know if you have any ideas for improving this.
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| Give us your feedback |
If you have any feedback, comments, suggestions or questions regarding Fusion or any Oxleas services, please email GPfeedback@oxleas.nhs.uk and we will either respond by email or arrange to visit your practice if you have a specific need.
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Greenwich edition - issue 8
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April 2013
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Greetings!
Our survey of GPs showed that you want to be able to contact our clinicians more easily. Therefore, in this issue, we give you their contact information and details of a new programme of GP education opportunities.
If you have any ideas or specific information you want included in future issues, please let us know. Feedback on the services Oxleas provide is always welcome.
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We can help your diabetes patients
 | | Liz Penn and Laura Mazzotti |
Greenwich GPs can take advantage of a service we provide which offers diabetes patients presenting with psychological problems access to a clinical psychologist.
All you have to do is pick up the phone and call 020 3260 5104 and ask for Clinical Health Psychologist, Laura Mazzotti, who is part of the Long Term Conditions Team. You can also email her at laura.mazzotti@oxleas.nhs.uk. GPs and referrers can find more information about this service by clicking here. You can also refer to details of our Care Pathway for people with diabetes presenting with psychological problems.
One of the messages that Laura and our Clinical Manager for Diabetes, Liz Penn, are keen to get across is that this service is available to patients when they are first diagnosed as well - not just when they have developed complications.
Read more
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Ask a clinician - fluoxetine and breastfeeding
 | | Chief Pharmacist Carol Paton |
In this new Fusion column we asked local GP, Dr Claire Windsor, to raise an issue for one of our own clinicians to answer.
If you have a question for a future issue, please email us.
Dr Windsor asked our Chief Pharmacist, Mrs Carol Paton: "In the post partum period do you advise switching from fluoxetine to paroxetine, if the patient is breast feeding and if so how do you do it?"
Carol's reply: "The short answer is no. The more detailed answer is as follows...
"When an antidepressant is initiated in a pregnant woman, fluoxetine is often chosen. This is because published data support this drug being reasonably safe and there is most practical experience with its use. All of this, of course, is circular."
Read more
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New programme of free seminars for local GPs
We are pleased to offer GP practices in Greenwich, Bexley and Bromley free 30 minute seminars on key health topics such as contraception and sexual health and assessing risk of suicide.
Delivered by Oxleas' clinicians, these can be held in your practice at a time convenient to you. Click here for the programme.
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Two new wards
Two new wards have been set up at Queen Mary's Hospital (QMH), Sidcup and Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Woolwich, dedicated to patients who are ready to be discharged but might need extra support or a place at a residential or nursing home.
Chislehurst Ward presently a 10 bed ward at Queen Mary's is now being run by Oxleas staff. You can call the ward on 020 8302 2678 extensions 4770, 4774 or 4893.
And a new 20 bed ward is being operated by South London Healthcare NHS Trust (SLHT) at QEH along the same lines. Both wards have been commissioned in a bid to help cope with the pressures on medical acute beds across south east London.
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Queen Mary's Hospital plans approved
 The Secretary of State for Health has approved the recommendation by the Trust Special Administrator (TSA) at South London Healthcare NHS Trust that ownership of the Queen Mary's Hospital site transfers to Oxleas.
Our Chief Executive Stephen Firn said: "The recommendation recognises our clinical expertise and financial stability and reaffirms Oxleas as a highly regarded provider of high quality local NHS services. We have provided NHS services from a range of sites across the borough of Bexley for the past two decades. We have shared the concern of local people, commissioners and MPs about the decline of Queen Mary's in recent years and we plan to invest in the hospital to safeguard its future. We therefore welcome the opportunity to play a leading role in making Queen Mary's a hub for high quality healthcare services for local people.
"We will continue negotiations with commissioners and providers to develop plans and a business case around the transfer of Queen Mary's Hospital."
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Meet our clinicians
 | | Dr Anthony Akenzua |
This is the first in a series of stories about clinicians you can contact at Oxleas. Here we focus on Dr Anthony Akenzua, Clinical Director of our Adult Acute Mental Health Services.
A firm believer that improvements in efficiency and quality will deliver better patient experience, Dr Akenzua is equally convinced that collaborative working between health professionals is the best way to achieve this.
Anthony has lived in the UK for more than 10 years having left Nigeria in 2002. He first worked as a locum with Oxleas in 2002 prior to going on to the Guy's, King's and St Thomas' rotation. He became a consultant psychiatrist with Oxleas in 2006 and worked as a community consultant psychiatrist.
You can contact Dr Akenzua on 020 8836 8555; mobile: 07747532424 or email anthony.akenzua@oxleas.nhs.uk.
To read this story in full click here.
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Contact our consultants
All GPs in Greenwich should have received a letter from us giving details of how to contact our mental health consultants if you need to have a discussion with them.
We have also circulated information on how we can help GPs when you have a patient with a mental health crisis.
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GP Masterclass is on video
Thirty-five GPs and practice staff came along to our GP Masterclass on Diabetes earlier this year and you can view it on our website.
Our two expert speakers, Dr Jennifer Tremble (Consultant Diabetes and Endocrinology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital) and Khalida Ismail (Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London and Diabetes Centre, King's College Hospital) gave the audience a thorough insight into the treatment and care of diabetic patients. Oxleas staff from Greenwich and Bexley shared information about the community diabetes services we provide.
Dr Tremble presented on what's new in managing hypoglycaemia in Type 2 Diabetes - and Professor Ismail talked about diabetes and psychiatry.
A video with details of our most recent GP Masterclass will be on our website shortly. It focuses on Early Intervention in Psychosis with a presentation from a CAMHS clinician.
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Our next GP Masterclass
The next GP Masterclass is planned for Wednesday 10 July. It will cover Memory Services. There will be a short presentation from an Older People's Mental Health (OPMH) Directorate clinician, followed by panel led case discussions. To book a free place, please call us on 01322 625034 or email rhiannon.adams@oxleas.nhs.uk.
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Oxleas film premiere at Woolwich Tramshed
 | | The young cast at The Tramshed film premiere |
A film made by young people to help explain the work of our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) was premiered recently at the Tramshed in Woolwich.
It is estimated that 11,235 children between the ages of 5-16 has a diagnosed mental health disorder across Greenwich, Bexley and Bromley.
The aim of the film, which you can see on our website, is to empower and inform young people who are new to CAMHS and encourage them to attend their first appointment with the service. DVDs of the film will be sent out to all young people when they are first referred to our CAMHS service.
We commissioned the film and it was made by Greenwich and Lewisham Young People's Theatre and YoungMinds, with the involvement of young people who have experienced CAMHS themselves.
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If you have any feedback, comments, suggestions or questions regarding Fusion or any Oxleas services, please contact us.
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