Thursday update

In both tonight’s Evening Telegraph and on STV News at 6pm, I made clear my concerns at the failure of Public Health Minister Shona Robison MSP to intervene regarding the future of Ward 6 at Royal Victoria Hospital. It is important that Shona Robison now promptly intervenes given the extent of concerns about NHS Tayside’s proposals.

Tonight, after a busy surgery at Blackness Primary School, I attended the West End Local Community Planning Partnership meeting that was kindly hosted (at short notice) by Tayside Police at the Lochee Police Station. There was a very useful update from Social Work on protecting vulnerable adults and children and on social work caseloads in the West End post code areas.

Lastly for today – following a letter in Monday’s Tele about an apparent mis-spelling in the quote from William McGonagall’s poem about the Tay Bridge rail disaster that is carved along the footway in Riverside Drive, the City Council advises me :

“In response to the letter about the word ‘beatiful’ in McGonagall’s poem at Riverside, we would like to point out that the quote uses the poet’s own unique spelling.

In the spirit of historical accuracy, and in a nod to his idiosyncrasies, it was decided his version of the word would be retained.”

Future of Ward 6 at Royal Victoria Hospital

As reported in today’s Courier and in my interview today on Radio Tay, I have called on the Minister for Public Health and Sport, Shona Robison MSP, to intervene to protect services for elderly patients at Ward 6 in Dundee’s Royal Victoria Hospital.

Following senior doctors protesting at the possible closure of Ward 6, it is vital that the Minister intervenes to protect these important services for elderly patients in Dundee.

Following a flurry of concerns about the situation from constituents, earlier this month, I wrote to Professor Tony Wells, Chief Executive of NHS Tayside to voice concerns. His response is pasted below.

During the recent general election, Ms Robison’s colleagues in the SNP had made much of a “community charter” they had launched that First Minister Alex Salmond said was a ‘contract with the community’. This document committed SNP parliamentarians to campaign against cuts to our local services and in this case actions speak louder than words and I hope Shona Robison will stand up for Ward 6 at Royal Victoria Hospital.

It is clear from the medical professionals’ concerns that the proposals in relation to Ward 6 that there are very real issues here and it is important that the Public Health Minister takes action here. I have been inundated with concerns from constituents about this matter and I hope NHS Tayside listens carefully to concerns raised by senior doctors and by the wider community.

LETTER RECEIVED FROM THE NHS TAYSIDE CHIEF EXECUTIVE :

Dear Councillor Macpherson

FUTURE OF WARD 6, ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL

Thank you for your email received yesterday (10 May 2010).

Due to the physical environment of Ward 6, the proposed changes mean that there will be a planned, phased closure of this ward over the next five months. However, over the same period, we will be increasing the number of acute medicine for the elderly beds at Ninewells.

NHS Tayside is embarking on an ambitious programme of modernisation of older people services across Tayside as part of our Older People’s Strategy. These plans look at how we can ensure that older people are assessed more quickly and are cared for with all the support they need in the most appropriate environment for their individual needs.

This includes looking at reducing unnecessary admissions and also reducing prolonged lengths of stay for older people in a hospital bed.

Part of the modernisation programme includes a review of the services provided at both Royal Victoria Hospital and Ninewells to ensure that older people requiring admission to hospital are placed in the correct setting and that we have a range of services to support alternatives to admission where this is appropriate.

We believe these improvements will enhance the pathway of care for older people in Tayside and improve care within Medicine for the Elderly services.

Yours sincerely

 

Professor Tony Wells

 

Family Planning Services : NHS Tayside responds

I recently received this concern from a West End resident :

“A concern I have is that the family planning clinic at Ryehill Health Centre has now moved to ninewells. It was very convinient for local residents to have a clinic nearby. It was also needed as now the only family planning clinic for Dundee is at Ninewells.”

I therefore wrote to NHS Tayside about this and have received the following reply from Sandy Watson, NHS Tayside Chair :

“Dear Cllr Macpherson

I refer to your email addressed to both myself and Tony Wells regarding the concerns of one of your constituents around the changes to Family Planning Services in Dundee.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Services (SRHS) is a unified service hosted within Dundee Community Health Partnership (CHP). Until recently there were two sites in Dundee, Ryehill Health Centre which focused mainly on reproductive health and contraceptive advice (family planning) and the Ninewells clinic which focused on specialist sexual health screening (genitourinary medicine). The new integrated model based in Ninewells Hospital combines both family planning and genitourinary medicine.

The move to integrate the two parts of the service is in line with both local NHS Tayside and national Scottish Government policy and is planned for all Health Boards in Scotland. During 2005 NHS Tayside and the community planning partners developed the Tayside Sexual Health and Relationships Strategy, which was endorsed by the Board of NHS Tayside in November 2005. One of the strategic aims contained in the action plan was “to build capacity across the clinical services and increase access to specialist sexual health services.”

The first phase of this integrated service model has brought together genitourinary medicine and family planning onto one site at Ninewells to provide “a one stop shop” for patients and to make best use of resources. The ability to have these services on one site has undoubtedly improved the patient journey. The clinical team are able to provide enhanced services, work out of hours and expand the range of services available to patients at their clinic visit.

The service is currently based in an out-patient clinical area on Level 7 at Ninewells Hospital. The Ninewells site was chosen as the base for Dundee as an interim measure as this site has the clinical accommodation and support services required (eg laboratory services) to offer patients all aspects of a specialist sexual and reproductive health service.

The ultimate aim is to move the unified SRHS to a more central community based site, and to offer a specialist service with strong links into Dundee’s localities utilising a hub and spoke model. This model is supported by the staff in SRHS and our colleagues in primary and secondary care, the voluntary sector and local authority.

This new service offers a full range of care and specialist interventions which include Contraception, Psychosexual Counselling, Menopause Clinics, Nurse Led Counselling Services, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) screening, Health Advisory Services, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Clinics and Specialist Genital Skin Clinics. A specialised young people’s service is offered in conjunction with colleagues from child protection and there are plans to develop generic young people’s services.

As a service we are trying to target the vulnerable and hard to reach groups and tackle some of Tayside’s unenviable sexual health statistics. The Ninewells site has already attracted more young people and is accessible through many of the main bus routes throughout the city.

I hope this has given an insight into some of the decisions taken to improve the patient journey and the resultant changes to service delivery in Dundee and how as a specialist service we plan to move forward.

Yours sincerely

Sandy Watson
Chair, NHS Tayside”

I would welcome residents’ comments/feedback on this matter – either e-mail me at fraser@frasermacpherson.org.uk or call Dundee 459378 – many thanks.