Councillors had the opportunity to learn first hand about the issues facing people with learning disabilities in Cornwall, as well as discovering the future plans of Devon Partnership NHS Trust and South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust at a special briefing staged for members of the Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
The Strategic Briefing was the brainchild of Committee Chairman Eric Parkin who wanted to ensure that members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee were provided with the latest information about these important areas of health and adult social care.
The first part of the briefing included presentations from a number of individuals and organisations who work with people with a learning disability and their carers. These included Cornwall People First and the Get Real Team, the Supported Living Service, the Learning Disability Partnership Board and the Learning Disability Carers Panel.
Councillors heard about the innovative work of the Health Checkers, a group of people with learning disabilities from the John Daniels News Group and Cornwall People First and Get Real projects, who decided to form their own team to visit the county’s acute hospitals to look at how services are provided for people with learning disabilities.
The team made a video about their visits to Treliske and West Cornwall hospitals, where they spoke to staff in the Accident and Emergency, Medical Assessment, Outpatients and PALS Departments and considered a number of issues including the forms and information leaflets available and the signs on walls and doors.
Health Checker Neil Oats told the meeting that the group felt some signs and leaflets could be confusing to people with learning disabilities. They now hoped to meet with members of the hospitals’ Senior Management to discuss any improvements which could be made.
Ebony Ray Thomas, Chair of Cornwall People First, Get Real and Co Chair of Learning Disability Partnership Board, spoke on the impact of the Fair Access to Care arrangements on people with learning disabilities. Ebony provided a personal account of her own fears and concerns and asked Councillors to really reflect on what the new, higher, eligibility criteria mean for many people with learning disabilities across Cornwall.
This was followed by a presentation by members of the Get Real team, a group of 12 people with learning disabilities who were elected to represent the interests of people with learning disabilities on the Learning Disability Partnership Board. Since the election at the end of 2005, the group have been involved in a number of projects, including the Cornwall Access Pass, and have spoken at national conferences about their work.
The meeting also heard from representatives of the Carers Panel for people with learning disabilities about the problems identifying people who cared for relatives at home. The Family Care Representative for the Supported Living Service spoke about the positive impact of the Shared Ownership Service which was helping people with learning disabilities to buy their own homes. Margaret Upham who is staging the innovative Sharing Knowledge course in Cornwall over the next few weeks, explained how this course will ensure that users and carers engage as equal partners in all planning and decision making activities.
The second stage of the briefing included a presentation from Ralph Hayward, from the Devon Partnership NHS Trust on the specialist provision serving Cornwall’s population and the Trust’s application for Foundation Trust status.
The Trust, which provides a wide range of services, including mental health services, support for people with learning disabilities, drug, alcohol and substance misuse services, support for people with learning disorders and forensic services for people who come into contact with the criminal justice services.
Members heard about the development of the Trust since it was formed in 2002 and its ambition to become the most progressive mental health and learning disability trust in the county. Emphasising that their aim was to
“offer the right care in the right place at the right time”, Mr Hayward explained what a Foundation Trust was, and outlined the benefits it would bring to local communities.
He added that members of the public and key stakeholders were currently being consulted on the formation of a Trust, with a final application due to be submitted in November 2007.
The briefing ended with a presentation from Ken Wenman, Chief Executive of the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust, on the Trust’s Strategic Plan and Direction of Travel for Ambulance Services.
Explaining that the Ambulance Service was far from being just a taxi service, Mr Wenman said that they provided Non Emergency Ambulance Services, a Specialist Falls Service, Urgent Care Services, including Minor Injuries Units, a Pharmacy and Out of Hours Primary Care Services for Dorset, Somerset, Prisons, the Army, Navy and an out of hours dental service, as well as the Emergency Ambulance 999 Services.
Staff include Critical Care Practitioners, Emergency Care Practitioners
(including Nurse ECP’s and Paramedic ECP’s) ; Paramedics, Technicians, Emergency Care Support Workers and Urgent Care Assistants.
Mr Wenman told the meeting that they were carrying out a full review of the current ambulance bases. This included identifying established costs over the next 10 years of current stations, mapping the best locations for improving response times and identifying partner organisations for dual locations. They would also be looking at the development of new Urgent Care Hubs.
Ken Wenman said “I was delighted to be part of this strategic brief and would like to express my thanks and appreciation to Councilor Eric Parkin for arranging it. “
“Working with allied healthcare professionals in the community to collectively improve patient care is extremely beneficial and it was fantastic to be given the opportunity to showcase the innovative developments that the Trust is involved with. South Western Ambulance Service puts as much emphasis on treatment as it does on transport and our skilled clinicians deliver the finest pre-hospital care and the wide variety of transport methods and healthcare settings that the service works with is phenomenal and I welcomed the opportunity to discuss these exciting developments.
“The event was extremely successful and I look forward to similar ones in the future”.
Councillors then had the opportunity to look at a range of vehicles and equipment provided by the Ambulance Trust, including a frontline ambulance, a rapid response car, a rapid response motorcycle and a patient transport ambulance.
This included some of the equipment provided by FLEET, a charity formed by ambulance staff in 1990 to standardise the equipment carried on ambulances in Cornwall. The charity now equips 38 Accident and Emergency ambulances and two search and rescue helicopters at Culdrose. It has also provided pulse oxymeters and blood pressure monitors for all Cornwall ambulances, first aid equipment for coastguard units, four resuscitators for young mums to practice CPR for babies at risk of cot death, advanced cardiac life support units as well as spinal care equipment, burns equipment, splintage, paediatric equipment, vacuum splints and mattresses, response bags.
Councillors were also able to talk to a number of staff, including an Emergency Care Practitioner.
Chairman Eric Parkin was delighted with the success of the day which, he said, had given councillors an invaluable insight into the work of all these organisations.
Ends
