The flu vaccine helps protect people from what can be a severe and sometimes fatal illness.

Who should get the flu vaccine? Most children can get the children’s flu vaccine including children aged 2 or 3 years on 31 August 2023, school-aged children (Reception to Year 11), and children with certain health conditions. 

It can be given as a quick and painless nasal spray or if requested, via an injection which does not contain porcine gelatine. For more information please visit the NHS website 

All adults eligible for a free flu vaccine will have been contacted by their GP or other clinician to book an appointment.

When can I get a flu vaccine? The vaccine is still available for eligible adults until 31 March 2024 via community pharmacies and other clinicians. This includes patients newly diagnosed as high risk. To find out how to get a flu jab across BOB visit the Stay Well-BOB website 

The NHS is encouraging anyone struggling with feelings of depression, or anxiety such as excessive worry, panic attacks, social anxiety, post-traumatic stress, or obsessions and compulsions, to seek help through NHS Talking Therapies services.

These are effective, confidential and free treatments delivered by trained clinicians, online, on the phone, or in person.

For those whose first language is not English, talking therapies can be delivered through multi-lingual therapists or through confidential interpreters, and in British Sign Language (BSL) through SignHealth’s NHS Therapies for Deaf People service.

A GP can refer  for NHS Talking Therapies, self-referral online here 

The NHS has launched a new campaign to boost self-referrals to Op COURAGE, the NHS mental health and wellbeing service for ex-military personnel, which was expanded last year.

Op COURAGE is a dedicated NHS mental health service developed by veterans, for veterans.

There are six regional services. The South East service is led by Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, and covers Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West.

You can help by: Sharing Op COURAGE posts from the Berkshire Healthcare Twitter @BHFT, Facebook @Berkshirehealthcare and Instagram @berkshealthnhs feeds.

Creating your own posts with the campaign materials. See Op COURAGE Awareness Campaign | Campaigns | Campaign Resource Centre (dhsc.gov.uk)

Visit the service website at: www.opcouragesoutheast.nhs.uk

The NHS in Hampshire has launched a public consultation about how between £700 million and £900 million should be invested in hospital services to transform healthcare for communities across the county.

Proposals include:

• building a new hospital on the current Basingstoke hospital site or near Junction 7 of the M3 for specialist and emergency care.
• investing in the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester which would focus on planned operations and procedures.
• continuing to deliver day-to-day hospital services such as outpatients, diagnostics, and therapy services from the main hospital sites.

For further information and to take part in the a survey visit the consultation website. 

The MMR vaccine is a safe and effective way of protecting against measles, mumps and rubella. Two doses of the vaccine are needed for maximum life-long protection.

The first dose of MMR is given around a child’s 1st birthday, and the second dose given at around three years and four months old.

However, anyone can catch up at any age on any missed doses and it’s never too late get protected. GPs have recently sent MMR reminders to parents and carers of children age 6-11.

People in certain at-risk groups including babies and young children, pregnant women, and people with weakened immunity, are at increased risk of complications from measles.

Find out more at: MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

You can also view the Stay Well -BOB immunisation and vaccination website for more information. 

Patients can now get treatment for seven common conditions at most local high street pharmacies across BOB without needing to see a GP, as part of a major transformation in the way the NHS delivers care.

Of 251 community pharmacies in the BOB area, 244 will be offering the ground-breaking initiative, with the health service making it easier and more convenient for people to access care. A map showing participating pharmacies is available online Pharmacy First Registered Pharmacies in CPTV LPC - Google My Maps 

Highly trained pharmacists will be able to assess and treat patients for sinusitis, sore throat, earache, infected insect bite, impetigo, shingles, and uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women (under the age of 65) without the need for an appointment or prescription. 

To find out more visit the BOB ICB website

44 anaesthetic machines and monitors have been installed across operating theatres at Stoke Mandeville and Wycombe Hospitals, enhancing patient safety and recovery.

The new devices enable Buckingham Healthcare NHS Trust anaesthetists to more easily monitor and accurately dose patients. Technological enhancements, and smaller devices, also mean that patients can be monitored at all times, even while being moved from the operating theatre to the recovery room.

Improved gas recycling also ensures less gas is emitted. This is better for patients and staff and will, in the long-term, contribute to a reduction in the Trust’s carbon emissions, making it a greener trust. 

Pictured is Dr Ayushi Pandey with a new GE anaesthetic machine.

The care plan was introduced at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust five years ago and reflects the five priorities recommended by Leadership Alliance of Care of the Dying Person.

Purple Rose is incorporated in training programmes so all staff who deliver end-of-life care are up-to-date and do so in a compassionate and consistent way across all hospital and community teams.

Liz Monaghan, Lead Nurse for Palliative and End of Life Care at the Trust said: “When someone is dying we only have one chance to get things right for a patient and their family. I’m proud of the way the Trust has introduced and embedded the Purple Rose model of care. Its impact can be seen in the number of compliments colleagues receive from families about the compassionate and sensitive care provided when a loved one is at the end of their life.”

Therapists at the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital have helped support a wheelchair design that promises to transform mobility.

Ruth Peachment, an occupational therapist, and Kirsten Hart, a physiotherapist, who work for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust gave their professional support to help wheelchair designer Andrew Slorance (pictured) finalise his prototype for an intelligent, lightweight wheelchair.

They provided feedback to Andrew on areas they felt were most relevant for wheelchair users with spinal cord injuries seen at the centre. The prototype has been refined over the past three years and renamed the 'Phoenix I' ready for launch. To read the full story see here 

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust is looking at ways to improve maternity services at Wycombe Hospital - Maternity Services Survey

The Trust is also hosting a number of listening events virtually and in person in central Wycombe on the following dates:

• Tuesday 20 February 2024 10am-12pm Virtual
• Wednesday 21 February 2024 10am-12pm Wycombe
• Monday 26 February 2024 10am-12pm Wycombe
• Tuesday 5  March 2024 7.30-9.30pm Virtual

To book a place at a listening event or to find out more email: bht.patientexperience@nhs.net

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust's Wycombe Hospital has been accredited as an elective surgical hub delivering high standards in clinical and operational practice as part of an NHS England scheme. 

It assesses hubs against a set of standards to help them deliver faster access to prioritised care and surgical procedures such as cataract surgeries and hip replacements.

For more information visit the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust website

BOB ICB (formerly Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group), local GP practices and Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire District Councils have been working closely for many years to try to use an allocated site at Great Western Park in Didcot to provide new GP premises for this growing housing development. 

After extensive work and negotiations with the medical estates developer of the site, and due consideration of the significant needs of the increasing Didcot population, the executive Board of the ICB has accepted the business case for the new GP building as a high priority project. It has agreed to provide the required revenue funding to add to a capital contribution from the housing developers. 

This will be welcome news to all local stakeholders but, to proceed, the project requires full planning consent and a series of legal agreements (between Vale of White Horse District Council, the ICB, the Woodlands Medical Centre, the medical estates developer and NHS England) before a construction tender can be entered into and building work started.

For more information please see the BOB ICB website.

More than a thousand people in Oxfordshire have helped Oxfordshire County Council prepare a new strategy to improve health outcomes for local people over the next five years.

The new health and wellbeing strategy for Oxfordshire, 2024 - 2030, has been developed by Oxfordshire's Health and Wellbeing Board – the partnership between local NHS services, the county council, the city and district councils and Healthwatch Oxfordshire.

You can read the full strategy on the county council website see here 

Oxfordshire Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee met on 16 January this year and supported a locally co-produced plan for health partners to work with community stakeholders to progress the next stage of work to deliver more hospital services at Wantage Community Hospital.

Over the past year, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been working with NHS partners and the community to co-produce proposals to agree the future of Wantage Community Hospital. 

Building on this support, the Trust will progress the required governance processes and work with the community and NHS partners to make the closure of the inpatient unit permanent, enabling plans to refurbish the ground floor of the hospital for an expanded the range of clinic-based services.

This will also secure the longer-term future of outpatient services that have been running as pilots at the hospital and enable the development of a long-term plan for more clinics.   

An initiative which is helping people to return home from hospital more quickly has delivered significant improvements for Oxfordshire patients since it was launched in November.

Discharge to Assess (D2A), enables people who have had a stay in hospital to continue their recovery in the comfort of their own home, close to the communities that support them.

The national programme brings together hospital-based teams from health, adult social care, therapy and reablement to plan a patient’s best route out of hospital, as well as provide a more joined-up way to receive support once at home.

The programme is based on the recognition that people have better health outcomes when they are supported to live happily and independently within their own homes - a vision known locally as The Oxfordshire Way.

Age UK Oxfordshire and Oxfordshire County Council are encouraging older people to check whether they are entitled to pension credit, which may enable them to claim even more financial support.  

An estimated 5,000 older people across the county are not claiming the benefit to which they are entitled, which equates to £10.4 million in unclaimed entitlement locally.

Registering for pension credit can make it easier to unlock other financial entitlements, meaning the overall support can be significantly more than the income top-up itself. This includes Oxfordshire County Council’s Resident Support Scheme, which helps with short-term basic living costs such as food and credit for gas or electric prepayment meters.

Find out more by visiting Oxfordshire County Council’s website.

Plans for the future of Warneford Park in Oxford are making progress. The Headington site includes a mental health hospital managed by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Partners signed a Conditional Option Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding agreeing how they will work together going forward.

If plans are approved, the site will provide a new mental health hospital alongside a major brain health research and innovation campus and a new University of Oxford postgraduate medical college for more information visit the Trust website

Pictured is Grant McDonald, Chief Executive at the Trust and Professor Irene Tracey, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford signing the agreement. 

The stroke unit at Oxford University Hospitals is providing life-changing mechanical thrombectomy treatment 24 hours a day for the first time.

Mechanical thrombectomy – removing a blockage in a large blood vessel in the brain – can reduce disability and prevent or limit long-term care needs following a stroke. It relies on rapid transfer of acute stroke patients to regional centres with specialist teams.

Professor Meghana Pandit, Chief Executive Officer at the Trust, said: “This is excellent news for patients and demonstrates we are leading the way nationally for stroke care in Oxford, at the heart of a strong regional network of hospitals.”

Last year, the Oxford stroke unit (staff pictured) became among the first in the country to hit the NHS Long Term Plan target for this treatment.

Six nurses and allied health professionals have begun six-month fellowships to support research and practice improvement at Oxford University Hospitals (OUH). This is the second round of the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) Fellowship.

Funded by Oxford Hospitals Charity, the scheme encourages staff to find practical and impactful solutions to pressing hospital challenges.

This year’s research topics include minimising falls, the transition from paediatric to adult care, and staff retention - pictured are the six CNO fellows with Douglas Graham, CEO of Oxford Hospitals Charity.

Paula Gardner, OUH Interim Chief Nursing Officer, said: "We are grateful to Oxford Hospitals Charity for providing this funding, which supports our strategic aim of increasing research awareness, capability and capacity in the nursing, midwifery and allied health professional workforce.”

Healthwatch Oxfordshire wants to hear from people involved in Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) in the county. 

PPG members and their GP practices can share their views in a survey to explain what is going well, to highlight challenges or the help they might require. 

The feedback will help improve support to local PPGs.

To take part in take part in the survey or for further information see here 

Oxford University Hospitals' Council of Governors elections remain open for nominations until 5pm on Monday 5 February.

Elections are being held for public and staff governors in most constituencies, including Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. 

The Foundation Trust governors play a key role in representing the views of OUH patients, public and staff members, and ensuring that its services meet the needs of their patients and the populations it serves.

If you are interested in standing for election, further information is available on the OUH website.

The annual Staff Recognition Awards at Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) will culminate in an awards evening at Oxford Town Hall on Thursday 20 June. – 

The nominations window for this year’s awards opened on 1 February 2024 and remains open until midnight on Sunday 3 March.

Patients, relatives and members of the public are invited to nominate OUH teams and individual members of staff for the Patients’ Choice Award via the online portal.

The Patients’ Choice Award is a chance for patients and their loved ones to nominate staff who have gone the extra mile. It is a way of saying ‘thank you’ to OUH staff and showing them how much they are valued.

Anna Gardner (pictured) has been appointed as lead governor at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Anna takes over from Mike Hobbs who is standing down after two years in the role. He will continue as the Trust's public Oxfordshire governor. Visit the Oxford Health website to find out more here.

The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust is on the New Hospital Programme to receive significant investment. A number of challenges have been identified with redeveloping the hospital for 21st century care on the current site in Reading and they are exploring alternative sites.

They want to involve as many people as possible throughout their work to deliver a new hospital and in this phase are keen to hear thoughts on what would be important in a new site. 

To take part in the Trust's survey see here 

The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust has launched a campaign to help local patients to understand the different roles of healthcare professionals working at their GP practice.

The Trust has been producing a series of short videos highlighting different healthcare professional each week with the support of GP practices.

The various roles under the spotlight include practice managers, GP paramedics, health and wellbeing coaches and clinical pharmacists. The campaign will also be rolled out across the rest of BOB ICB.

You can watch the full playlist of videos that have been released here

Berkshire Healthcare’s Thames Valley and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Liaison and Diversion and Reconnect service has been recommissioned by NHS England to continue to provide health and justice support in court, custody and prison.

The new contract, covering areas including Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire and Isle of Wight, has been awarded for seven years.

Anyone over the age of 10 can request to see a liaison and diversion practitioner while in custody or before they appear in court. You can find out more information about the service on Berkshire Healthcare’s website.

Ten local groups have shared grants worth a total of £122,000 to help them continue to provide services or start new projects in their communities. 

The grants have been made available from the Better Care Fund managed by BOB ICB and Reading Borough Council.

The following projects have received funding:

• Mustard Tree which provides support to young people admitted to the emergency department at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading due to violence, substance abuse, mental health, or risk-taking behaviour.
• Parents & Children Together (Alana House) will continue a pilot project at the Royal Berkshire Hospital to help patients who might be experiencing domestic abuse get referred to the charity.