| 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 GP 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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Bexley edition - issue 9
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June 2013
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Greetings!
In this issue, you'll find details of our latest GP seminars and our first GP Masterclass of the summer. There's also an update on improved facilities for patients at our Urgent Care Centre in Queen Mary's Hospital.
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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Summer launch for Neuro Rehabilitation service
 | | Angus Gartshore |
We have been commissioned to provide a new neuro-rehabilitation service for residents registered with a Bexley GP, recovering from a stroke, with neurological conditions or brain injuries. The new service will start on 1 July and be fully operational by 19 August.
The service will mean that patients, depending on their individual needs, will receive a tailored package of care either at their home or up to a two week stay in Chislehurst Ward, Queen Mary's Hospital. There will be four purpose built beds dedicated to neurological patients and a rehabilitation gym. The ward is currently being refurbished and the new beds will be available on 1 October - until then patients will be treated in the Elmstead Unit at the hospital. The new gym will be used by patients in the community and on the ward. The community service will enable patients to leave acute hospital care sooner, giving greater independence and avoiding unnecessary hospital stays.
The team includes specialists from a range of professions including GPs, phsyiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, dietetics, nursing and neuro-psychology.
GPs can contact the neuro-rehab service on T: 020 8319 7138 or F: 020 8319 7106. If you have any questions about the service please email Angus Gartshore, Service Manager Unscheduled Care and Rehabilitation: angus.gartshore@oxleas.nhs.uk.
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Oxygen therapy reviews are a breath of fresh air
 | | Lynn Orford |
A comprehensive review of patients receiving oxygen therapy in Bexley has resulted in dramatic improvements to monitoring, prescribing and patient safety.
Oxygen therapy is important to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD).
Community Respiratory Team Lead, Lynn Orford led the review. You can contact Lynn on 020 8319 5381. The disturbing findings showed that there were problems with many patients' prescriptions and 40% had high levels of carbon dioxide in their blood. The 220 patients receiving oxygen therapy in Bexley are now on the right prescriptions and receiving a safe, evidence based service. If you would like to know more about managing respiratory problems, you can book a seminar with Lynn by clicking here.
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A healthier and busier Urgent Care Centre
 | | Queen Mary's Urgent Care Centre |
Our busy Urgent Care Centre (UCC) at Sidcup's Queen Mary's Hospital has become a healthier, more welcoming place for patients.
It now boasts a cheaper healthier options vending machine with no fizzy drinks and parents can give their children free activity packs to keep them occupied.
According to UCC clinical manager, Kate Williams: "We are now averaging 100 to 125 attendances a day. The greatest attendance to date is 154. In 2012, we saw 38,733 patients with a 0.4% breach." A breach is the number of patients not seen within the required four hours.
The service has made steady improvements over the last year. In the first quarter of last year, UCC staff saw 11,908 patients with a 1.1% breach. In the first three months of this year we saw 12,601 patients (a 693 increase already this year) with only a 0.4% breach. We average one patient complaint a month, with some months being complaint free. In 2011, we averaged two complaints a month.
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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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Queen Mary's Hospital site update
 | | Keith Soper |
GPs may be interested to know that work is well underway to ensure that ownership of the Queen Mary's site can safely transfer to Oxleas. Key to this is a demonstration of a sound business case and clear transitional delivery plans for clinical services provided from the site.
Negotiations are continuing with commissioners and other NHS providers to agree both what the space requirements will be on day one and what it is anticipated the site will look like once fully developed.
At this stage, site plans are reasonably well developed but by no means finalised, as they will depend, to a degree, on the amount of space required by other NHS providers operating from the site. If you have any questions about Queen Mary's, please direct them to Keith Soper, Project Manager - Queen Mary's.
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Meet our clinicians ...
In the latest of our series profiling Oxleas' clinical directors we talked to Dr Jonathan West, Clinical Director of Adult Complex Needs Recovery Service.
Listening to each other is important says Dr West
 | | Dr Jonathan West |
Jonathan joined Oxleas about eight years ago. As well as his Clinical Director role across all of our adult community mental health services he is also a Consultant Psychiatrist specialising in treating patients that fall under the remit of the Early Intervention in Psychosis Team. These might typically be young people experiencing their first major breakdown.
He did his medical training at St. George's Medical School in Tooting. He specialised in psychiatry because he said: "Psychiatry has a holistic approach to patients and I like that. Psychiatry is a very decent part of the medical profession, where everybody involved seems to listen to each other. Patients and doctors listen closely to each other as do fellow professionals."
And Dr West isn't afraid of a challenge. In a previous job he worked in a deaf unit and had to learn sign language pretty quickly to function. Some staff at the unit were deaf too so it was an essential tool.
Such experiences have helped him at Oxleas. Signing has he said helped him know how to use an interpreter to best advantage too. He said: "I always speak to a patient directly, not to the interpreter. The patient will still get the message and know you are concerned directly with him or her not the interpreter."
He said that we must focus on patients and make sure what we do benefits those needing adult mental health care.
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New Lead for all our adult mental health services
 | | Iain Dimond |
We have streamlined the management for adult mental health services - the man at the helm is Iain Dimond. It will encourage innovations and new ways of working which will improve care and the patient experience.
Iain has recently taken up the role of Director of Adult Mental Health and Learning Disability Services - a new directorate was formed on 1 May. Iain is an occupational therapist by background. He joined Oxleas in 2009 as Service Director for Bromley Mental Health Services before becoming Director of Adult Complex Needs Mental Health and Learning Disability Services in 2012.
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Free seminars for Bexley GPs
We continue to offer GP practices in Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich 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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Oxleas film premiere
 | | 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.
If you have any feedback, comments, suggestions or questions regarding Fusion or any Oxleas services, please contact us.
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Event for young people interested in mental health
If you have any young patients under the age of 25 who might be interested in a free one day event for those that have experience of mental health issues - read on.
The Mental Health Research Network have organised an event for young people with direct or indirect experience of depression, anxiety, eating disorders or OCD. They will hear from service users and carers who have helped shape current mental health research, have their say and meet other young people interested in mental health.
It's all happening in Paddington, central London, on Saturday 6 July. See flyer for contact details and how to book. All attendees will be entered into a draw for an iPad.
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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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