Community health Watchdog to investigate Waiting Times

THE EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE LINk is to look into an area of health and social care concern that will be an issue for most people - waiting times! And the health watchdog wants your stories and experiences to help carry out its task.

The latest newsletter from the ERYLINk (Local Involvement Network) says that Monitoring of Waiting Times for Health and Social Care will be one of the major issues that the group's leaders will concentrate on in the coming months.

Under the NHS constitution you have the right to start consultant-led treatment within a maximum of eighteen weeks from being referred by a GP. If it is not possible to be seen within the maximum waiting time, then this must be investigated and you must be offered a range of suitable alternative options.

Patients with urgent conditions such as cancer and heart disease, should be seen and receive treatment more quickly. For example, you have the right to be seen by a specialist within a maximum of two weeks from GP referral where cancer is suspected. The Government has also made a pledge that there should be a maximum four-hour wait in A&E (Accident and Emergency Departments) from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge.

But what is the reality on the ground? What is your experience of waiting times? Is the 18 weeks rule of relevance to you? How long have you been kept waiting in A&E? And what is the experience of waiting times for social care?

If you have a view on this and a story to share for the ERYLINk study - then contact them at:

ERYLINk Office
Challenge House
35 Eastgate North
Driffield East Riding of Yorkshire
YO256DG
Telephone: 01377 232135 or 232136

Email: erylink@hwrcc.org.uk
Website: www.erylink.org.uk

NOTE FOR DIARIES: The ERYLINk is holding a meeting of its Lead Group in the Holderness area on Tuesday 15th November 2011.

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ERYLINk seeks new leaders

THE ERYLINk is watching the health and social care providers in the East Yorkshire area on behalf of patients and the public. But new blood - sorry for the pun! - is needed for the community network's Lead Group.

The Local Involvement Network's Lead Group is the body elected by the ERYLINk members to manage and steer the organisation. A key part of the role of the Lead Group is to ensure that the organisation is representative of, and accountable to local communities.

The ERYLINk is seeking 2 individual members and 4 organisational members to join the LINk Lead Group and nominations from members have to be in by Wednesday 4th May.

If you want to join the ERYLINk, or find out more about the Lead Group elections then have a look at the ERYLINk website or contact Susan Oliver at the organisation's Driffield HQ on 01377 232135.

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A Public Meeting will be held at The Spa, Bridlington on 20 April 2011 from 6.30pm to 8.30 pm to facilitate the questioning of the Chief Executives of Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare Trust and York Hospital Foundation Trust. Patrick Crowley (York) and Mike Proctor (SNEY) will be present to give an update on the merger between the two trusts and to answer questions from the floor.

Come along and hear about it from the men who know.

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Health Watchdog leaders seek to appoint new Chair

LOCAL HEALTH WATCHDOGS the East Riding of Yorkshire LINk have lost their Chair who has resigned "due to unforseen circumstances". The organisation which meets in Beverley next week for a crucial discussion on the Government's Health Bill now seeks to appoint a new Chair from within its leading group of activists.

Under its existing rules the organisation would have to organise a hustings of its entire membership to elect a new Chair - so the organisation's governance document is being changed to allow the LINk's Lead Group to elect this important role.

It would seem to make sense that the Chair is elected by the body in which she/he will spend the most time facilitating, but members will have the opportunity to accept or reject this, along with other proposed policy and procedure changes, at the meeting on Thursday February 24th.

See Beverley Forum on the ERYLINk website.

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HealthWatch - Get involved from the start!

IN JULY 2010, the Government announced plans to set up new independent champions for health and social care consumers called HealthWatchEngland.

Many people already give up their time - via LINks (Local Involvement Networks) and Patient Participation Groups and help shape local health and social care services. To build on this, HealthWatchEngland will be established as the "national independent champion" for health and social care consumers i.e. those who use and benefit from such services.

East Riding LINk is expected to turn into the local HealthWatch which Government documents have described as a kind of "citizen’s advice bureau" for health and social care in the area.

Legislation to establish HealthWatch is being introduced by Parliament. The new bodies are expected to be up and running by 2012.

People interested in helping to shape health and social care services locally - and getting involved with HealthWatch from the start - can find out more by contacting:

Susan Oliver

ERYLINk Office
Challenge House
35 Eastgate North
Driffield

Telephone: 01377 232135
E-mail: erylink@hwrcc.org.uk

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MP calls for Parliamentary debate on "unfair" Health funding formula that hits the East Riding.

GRAHAM STUART MP has called for a Parliamentary debate on the allocation of health funding which he says leaves the East Riding out in the cold.

According to information submitted by Graham Stuart in January, every man woman and child in Beverley
and Holderness has less spent on their health than nearly anywhere in the rest of the country. Residents are hit twice as the Primary Care Trust receives around £85 less per person than the national average because it falls foul of a funding formula which sees more cash going to other areas. The MP has determined that only two other PCTs in England have a lower per person health spend.

Prior to the election the MP vowed to act to help the PCT close the funding gap and take the issue up in the House of Commons, which he has now done:

Could we have a debate as soon as possible on the allocation of health funding? ...The Labour party put in place a gerrymandered allocation of health funding, which means that the good people of the East Riding, for instance, have only £1,200 per head spent on their health care, whereas the people of Hull, who are much younger and generally fitter, receive 50% more. It is simply wrong." House of Commons, 27th May 2010.

Health funding is calculated using a complex formula which is designed to ensure that funding is allocated to areas of greatest need. The formula takes account of the population and then adjusts it for things like the overall age and additional needs which an area may have. The total population number for the PCT is weighted using this formula to arrive at a figure known as the ‘unified weighted population’.

East Riding PCT, with a population of 336,700 has a ‘unified weighted population' of only 300,199 for the year 2009/10. Yet in neighbouring Hull the formula means the population of 250,000 becomes a ‘unified weighted population of 316,634.

Graham Stuart has determined that in order for the East Riding to get its “fair” share, it would need to be allocated a further £28.4 million in 2009/10 – £84 per actual person.

Links:
Graham Stuart MP
House of Commons

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