Dozens of children in Greater Manchester (GM) are not needing hospital assessment or treatment thanks to improvements led by our children and young people network.
Our team made an important contribution to the Partnership’s Children’s Health and Wellbeing Framework, which has led to a reduction in hospital admissions.
Initiatives including new pathways, a tool box to support young people when they move to adult services and a ‘Preventing Avoidable Admissions Bundle’ are seeing early successes, which includes 154 fewer children being admitted to hospital with asthma.
The network has also just been successful in securing digital innovation funding for £100,000, which will be used to pilot an asthma self-management app in central Manchester, with the aim of preventing avoidable admissions for children to urgent and emergency care.
Children in GM are more likely to be admitted to hospital for asthma than in other parts of the country and it is hoped the trial in central Manchester will help young people manage their condition better with the help of information on their phone, so their symptoms do not worsen to the point where they need to go to hospital.
The app has been called a “health passport” by its creators and also allows clinicians to put asthma action plans directly onto a young person’s smartphone.
It will also integrate daily pollen counts, localised air pollution readings, and a weather tracker to enable patients to identify external factors that may contribute to their own ill health.
Charlotte Mitchell, the network’s Children’s Programme Manager, said: “We’re really excited about this project. This app has the potential to improve the lives of children and young people in Manchester who live with asthma, giving them instant, easy-to-access advice and information and supporting young people to manage their own wellness and health records."
If successful, it is hoped the app could be rolled out across GM.
Image above shows an example of what the new app will look like.
Maternity network
Two celebration events have taken place to mark the success of programmes which helped improve the lives of babies and their families.
Maternity providers from Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire and the North West Coast came together to celebrate PreCePT – a joint programme across Health Innovation Manchester (HIM) and the North West Innovation Agency, which aims to promote the administering of magnesium sulphate to women in premature labour under 30 weeks’ gestation to reduce the risk of their baby developing cerebral palsy.
A total of 11 babies have been prevented from developing cerebral palsy since 2015, saving the babies and their families from a lifetime of dealing with a disability. There has also been an estimated £55m savings for the NHS.
This structured, funded programme has seen the creation of maternity PreCePT champions and clinical leads for expertise and training.
Chantal Knight, Maternity Safety Lead for the GMEC SCNs and HIM, said: “We are delighted we’ve been able to help so many babies and families, with many more set to be helped in the future.
“This year, hundreds of staff were trained, embedding the programme and we have exceeded our 85% standard month on month across GMEC, which is excellent news.”
The PreCePT champions all received certificates of achievement from Karen Bancroft, our maternity clinical lead.
Successes
We hosted our second maternity safety event at Bolton Whites Hotel last month to celebrate how we have improved safety across our maternity services.
Our programme included presentations from each of our providers to share their successes over the past 18 months, developed as part of the wider GMEC Local Maternity System, with each trust producing a poster of their successes.
Chantal said: “Some amazing work has been undertaken and we are very proud of the projects initiated and that our providers are working together to create a safer place to have a baby with enhanced and exceptional patient care.”
NHS Resolution and NHS England gave guests informative updates on the national current workstreams, and improvement body AQuA undertook a human factors short masterclass which invigorated the afternoon.
Photo above shows guests at the recent PreCept celebration event.
Help shape the future of cardiac services in Greater Manchester
Do you know someone who has received treatment for a heart-related condition over the past three years? Or do you know someone who cares for a loved one who lives with cardiovascular disease?
If so, would you be interested in feeding back how you felt about your experience and how you think it could be improved?
A new group is being set-up for the Greater Manchester Cardiac Network which will directly influence positive changes to the way patients are treated and cared for, working with clinicians and managers to agree the best way forward. Areas being worked on include stable angina, hypertension, cardiac rehabilitation and breathlessness.
If you are interested in getting involved or you want further information, please contact Samar Raja from our cardiac network via email, samar.raja@nhs.net.
Network helps raise standards and reach national standard
Early intervention for psychosis reduceses symptoms, leads to more people being able to continue to work or attend education and reduces hospital admissions by about a quarter.
Greater Manchester achieved the national standard for NICE Concordant care in Early Intervention in Psychosis for 2018/19.
Our provider and clinical reference group has been working through a schedule of peer reviews to support teams with this and their hard work has meant that slightly more than the 25% of teams required to be at level 3 was achieved.
The development of our Greater Manchester Clinical Guidelines, written by the SCN's GM Clinical Reference Group, has helped to manage increasing caseloads and had a positive impact on staff wellbeing where implemented, ultimately meaning that our patients have better outcomes.
New team member to help promote programmes
The diabetes team has welcomed its new member - Adam Wallis (pictured above) - who has joined as Project Officer to support the delivery of the GM Diabetes Strategy and Healthier You programme.
He will be working with the team to help coordinate the roll out of the Healthier You programme and the development of the Manchester Amputation Reduction Strategy. Adam comes to us from the GMHSC Partnership where he was working across a number of projects and programmes in corporate and clinical support services.
As part of the Long Term Plan, GM has been given extra places for people to attend the Healthier You behavioural change programme. The programme is for people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes and is delivering excellent outcomes. More than 38,000 people will be able to attend the programme over the three-year contract which supports patients to reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes.
The diabetes team is working closely with localities and the provider ICS to ensure that every place available on the programme is filled.
Becky Murray, the ICS Regional Manager, said: “We are working closely with locality leads, providing support and information to make Healthier You a success in GM. We now offer a group-based programme and a digital offer which allows patients to choose the programme that suits them best."
For more information, visit the ICS website or email Rebecca.
Finally, we've started to communicate our Diabetes My Way programme to GPs in Greater Manchester and people are starting to sign-up. A full campaign will be launched in the new year.
Picture above shows Adam in one of our Diabetes My Way t-shirts.
In a new feature, each month we take a closer look at one of our networks.
In the BEGINNING...The GMHSC Partnership has supported the existing Strategic Clinical Network (SCN) Palliative End of Life Care (PaEOLC) programme to forge quality improvements across the GM system and the GM and Eastern Cheshire SCN area since 2013.
This team is clinically-led by Dr David Watermen and Dr Liam Hosie and is supported by a small, but dynamic team led by Kim Wrigley and including Elaine Parkin, Christine Taylor, Shelley Cunliffe and Denise Woolrich. It aims to identify needs and gaps and then works collaboratively to deliver consistent and sustainable care improvements.
What are our AIMS?
- To ensure that care received is individualised, skilfully and sensitively delivered and of a consistently high standard.
- That ALL individuals who are experiencing a life limiting condition live as well as they can for as long as they can before they die.
- That ALL individuals approaching the end of life are identified and receive coordinated care to ensure that their choices and needs are delivered in a supportive manner by a competent and sustainable workforce.
- To consider the holistic needs of people close to individuals who may be in the last year of life and after bereavement.
2019 – What have we been doing?
GM has developed a set of 12 commitments, with a further four supporting commitments, which set-out the standards of care which people in the final months of their lives should expect. They were reviewed and amended through engagement with other groups, which included public input. These commitments were endorsed by the GM Health & Care Board in May 2019.
Delivery of the commitments will be supported and underpinned by the ‘GM Draft Framework’, a clear mechanism for change and equity of delivery, which is expected to be approved shortly.
Some of our other ACHIEVEMENTS – working in collaboration, including some still in progress:
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Spearheading an education and training programme which seeks to raise the usage of Advance Care Planning (ACP). ACP is a way of discussing and recording the wishes and preferences of a person who may be approaching the end of their life.
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The Inequalities lecture series aimed to address the imbalance in access to good quality end of life care by using professionals and experts with lived experience to review the difficulties faced by LGBT, the homeless, people with learning difficulties, people with dementia, as well as other groups, and provided expert reference, which will shortly be a nationwide available learning resource.
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The Six Steps to Success care home programme aims to enhance end of life care through facilitating organisational change and supporting staff to develop their roles around end of life care. It is aimed at improving end of life care provided by a care home or a domiciliary care organisation that encompasses the philosophy of palliative care.
Our two biggest STRENGTHS:
- A deep care and desire to improve palliative and end of life care for all our citizens and those close to them at a time when they are particularly vulnerable.
- Working diligently and in partnership with a whole spectrum of health care professionals, organisational teams, care homes, advisory bodies and academics and importantly patient and unwaged carer representatives.
The CHALLENGES:
- The biggest challenge is encouraging people to talk about death, dying and bereavement openly - it is still a taboo subject among many. The team continues to explore different ways of starting this important conversation.
- A system challenge is the establishment of a GM-wide electronic palliative care coordination system which will allow organisations to communicate across boundaries.
What will be the OUTCOMES for our citizens?
With specialist clinical input and guidance, the connectivity between services and personalised pathways of care and support, GM will not only be the place to ‘live well’, but ‘die well’ also.
For more information please contact England.GMEC-EOLC@nhs.net
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