(Pictured above: Claire Slattery, asthma specialist nurse, speaking to children in the Asthma Friendly Schools video).
The Asthma Friendly Schools programme, which the Network has been leading the development of, has launched a video explaining how it supports children.
Asthma is the most common long-term medical condition in children in the UK and improving care and support for children and young people living with the condition in Greater Manchester is a key priority for the Children and Young People Network.
The Asthma Friendly Schools programme, which was established by Islington CCG and Healthy London Partnership, aims to improve outcomes for children living with chronic asthma.
Click here to watch our Asthma Friendly Schools video, which explains the difference it is making in Greater Manchester, which adopted London’s model.
The programme enables schools to achieve recognition and meet agreed standards of care by supporting them to:
- Register all children and young people with asthma in the school
- Develop a management plan for each child
- Identify a named individual responsible for asthma in each school
- Develop a policy for inhaler techniques and care of children with asthma
- Develop a policy for emergency treatment
- Provide asthma training and education for staff
- Develop a system for identifying children who are missing school because of their asthma or who are not taking part in sports or other activities due to poor control.
The current pilot is with seven schools in Manchester and will run until April 2024.
If successful, the Network will create a plan for how it can roll this out to schools across the region.
As well as being promoted with a video, the programme recently featured on BBC Radio Manchester. Claire Slattery, asthma specialist nurse, and consultant paediatrician Dr Easwari Kothandaraman, spoke about the project on BBC Radio Manchester.
To listen, click here and listen from one hour, nine minutes and 40 seconds in).
For more information about the Asthma Friendly School programme, contact Afia Ali via afia.ali@nhs.net.
A working group has been launched to improve the care of children and young people with epilepsy in Greater Manchester.
The group aims to reduce the variation in care across the city region, especially the differences in specialist nurse provision.
They are also interested in ensuring children have a good experience when they move to adult services. A task and finish group has been established to discuss this further.
Dr Amy Wilson, consultant paediatrician and children’s epilepsy lead, and Deborah Garner, paediatric epilepsy specialist nurse, who both work for the Northern Care Alliance in Salford, established the working group and its priorities.
The group met earlier in the summer and there was enthusiasm to improve services and make sure children are not disadvantaged because of where they live in Greater Manchester.
If you would like more information about our epilepsy programme please contact frances.carbery1@nhs.net.
The Social Research Association has published a blog post from one of the Greater Manchester Young Inspectors, a group which reviews health services from a young person’s point of view.
The blog is written by Fatima Gondal, who is an A-Level student and an inspector with the Bee Counted project, a Youth Focus North West project, which the Network closely works with.
In her post, Fatima describes who the Young Inspectors are, what they do and the effect that the project has on the health services that are inspected.
A total of 10 children and young person services were inspected in Greater Manchester last year by the inspectors.
 (Pictured above: delegates and presenters at this year's annual stroke conference).
The Network has published its annual report for 2022-23 highlighting a wide range of achievements during the past 12 months - its first full year as a merged network.
The past year has taught the organisation that together it is stronger; the consolidation of the region’s stroke and neurorehabilitation networks continues to strengthen collaboration and integration between the two specialties, whilst also reflecting their differences.
It is now more efficient as a network, with a cohesive and patient-centred programme of quality improvement work that spans the whole stroke pathway and includes community neurorehabilitation. The Network is everyone involved in supporting patient care in the region, and post pandemic it remains inspired by the dedication and passion for improving Greater Manchester services despite very challenging times.
The Network has had a busy month of events and held its annual stroke conference in July, attended by around 150 delegates, plus many commercial and voluntary sector stands. Key note speakers included Louise Clark, a senior AHP in rehabilitation, as well as Dr Matt Kearney, formerly the national clinical director (NCD) for CVD prevention. The event was also livened up by the NW Stroke Community Choir, their first gig since the pandemic. The event was live streamed and you can watch the talks on the Network’s YouTube channel.
The Network also held a clinical summit to explore how the region can improve its intervention rates for thrombolysis and thrombectomy, which was well attended by stroke and radiology staff from the three hyper acute centres.
The meeting heard from the stroke NCD Dr Deb Lowe and NHSE Get it Right First Time lead Dr David Hargroves via MS Teams and also a clinical lead for stroke from Berkshire where they have thrombolysis rates of 28% (the national average is about 10%). The event generated a large amount of discussion as was a great call to action – so watch this space for improvements (and national stroke audit data!).
The Diabetes Network is inviting stakeholders to review diabetes services in Greater Manchester and participate in delivery planning to improve patients’ health.
The event in October will give anyone working in the health and social care sector with an interest in diabetes a chance to understand the current data and be involved in building plans to improve services.
The event is also an opportunity to meet with colleagues from across the Greater Manchester system.
The afternoon session will review emerging data from the new Greater Manchester diabetes dashboard to understand priorities and where improvement is possible. This will inform discussion on diabetes strategy.
The event is also an opportunity for clinical stakeholders to review current programmes and the challenges they may face in their roles.
The event is being held at 3 Piccadilly Place, Manchester city centre, M1 3BN, from 1pm-5pm on Monday, October 16.
You can reserve your place on the booking page.
Please contact Michelle Davies via michelle.davies9@nhs.net if you have any issues/queries regarding booking the event.
The Type 2 Diabetes Path to Remission (T2DR) Programme is delighted to welcome Anna Agar (pictured left) to the programme team in Greater Manchester.
Anna is an engagement lead for Momenta Newcastle, the new provider of the T2DR programme in the city region.
Anna has a wealth of experience to bring to the role following her previous work supporting GP practices on the Low Calorie Diet Pilot before it relaunched as the T2DR Programme in June this year. The Network oversees the roll out of the programme in Greater Manchester.
Anna will be available to promote the programme with practices and primary care networks and provide tailored support to practices to identify, contact and recruit people into the programme.
Anna said: “It’s been fantastic to see some amazing results and receive feedback from patients that have been able to dramatically improve their quality of life, either by losing weight, reduce medication, improve their mental health and put their Type 2 Diabetes into remission.
“There has been a lot of learning through the delivery of the pilot programme, and I’m looking forward to continuing to support practices across Greater Manchester.”
As part of the T2DR Programme incentives scheme, payments of £15 per eligible referral and £15 for each person who starts the programme will be available to practices.
This will be in addition to payments available through the Weight Management Enhanced Service.
For more information on the programme and the support available to practices please visit the Momenta website or contact Anna at anna.agar@momentanewcastle.com.
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We hope you’ve all seen our latest Impact Report, which looks back on our successful work over 2022-2023.
If you haven’t taken a look yet, please click here to read about the work of our Strategic Clinical Networks and associated groups over the last 12 months and how they’ve made a difference to the lives of people living and working in Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire.
From establishing new services to supporting people awaiting cardiac surgery, to improving access to diabetes technology, our Networks have achieved so much over the last year.
 (Pictured above: left to right, Catherine Cain, Cardiac Network programme manager, and project officers Naomi Kelly and Colin Daffern).
More than 180 people were tested for possible cardiovascular issues when the Your Heart Matters bus pulled into Manchester Central Mosque.
The Cardiac Network team was joined on the day by Heart Valve Voice, Pumping Marvellous and Valve for Life. It was the second time the bus had visited the city after a successful event last year, and it will be returning again in September.
A total of 181 members of the community were screened and 56 NT-pro BNP tests were carried out, which is a test for heart failure. People were very appreciative of the work done on the day and the team would like to thank the mosque for being such great hosts.
This week saw the launch of the March 2023 release of the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Audit (CVDPREVENT).
This data and improvement tool enables clinicians to drill down into the data, showing information at national, Greater Manchester Integrated Care System, Primary Care Network and individual practice levels, to enable teams to understand the performance of their services and potential improvement opportunities.
It also includes a range of indicators on inequalities as well as deprivation, age, ethnicity and gender. This is the latest data set Greater Manchester has until the new dashboard becomes available.
CVDPREVENT is a national primary care audit that automatically extracts routinely held GP data.
The tool is a national audit of GP records to support primary care in understanding how many people with cardiovascular disease (CVD), or conditions that lead to a higher risk of developing CVD, are potentially undiagnosed, under treated or over treated.
Analysis and reporting of the audit is designed to support systematic quality improvement using the findings from annual audit reports and the associated data and improvement tool, to reduce health inequalities and improve outcomes for individuals and populations.
The tool can be accessed here.
Clinicians are being invited to an event being held to mark Aortic Dissection Awareness Day.
Centred on the management of aortic dissection (when the weakened wall of the aorta tears, causing blood to leak between the layers that make up the walls of the arteries), the event in Preston will address new care pathways, patient experiences, A&E perspectives, acute care, and follow-up standards with an emphasis on the complexities of acute type A and type B dissections, ongoing patient support, family screening and long-term care.
The event is being held by the Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust in partnership with NHS England, our Strategic Clinical Network and the Northwest Coast Clinical Network.
- Keynote speakers, including Jane Tomkinson OBE and radio DJ ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris OBE, who is an AD survivor and patient advocate.
- There will be discussions on the complexities of thoracic aortic dissection repair and the risks of aortic rupture.
- It will be open to patients and families, AHPs in A&E Units, AHPs in Tertiary Treating Units and NHS leaders.
- Launch of the NHS Acute Aortic Dissection Toolkit for the North West, Wales and Isle of Man.
The event takes place on Tuesday, September 19, 10am-2pm, at Preston Marriot Hotel, Garstang Road, Lancashire, PR3 5JB.
For more info and booking.
 (Pictured above: staff celebrate the reopening of maternity services at Macclesfield Hospital)
As we reported briefly in last month’s newsletter, Macclesfield Hospital is once again delivering babies after services were suspended in March 2020 with the outbreak of Covid 19.
The Board of East Cheshire NHS Trust had to suspend maternity services due to the pandemic. To help ease pressures and free up theatre staff, births were temporarily relocated from Macclesfield Hospital to neighbouring maternity units as a safety measure.
The Maternity Network, led by Eileen Stringer, midwife clinical lead, as well as the Local Maternity and Neonatal Service, supported the temporary move, helping to communicate to families where they needed to go.
And when the time was ready to start planning the reopening, Eileen and the Network were involved again, to help make sure everything went to plan.
Kate Daly-Brown, Director of Nursing and Quality for East Cheshire NHS Trust, said: “I cannot thank our many partners enough – it has been a privilege to work with them over the past three years and to be in a position to return our full hospital maternity service.
“We are now fully staffed from a midwifery, anaesthetic and neonatal perspective and will be delighted to welcome our new cohort of international midwives over coming months. In preparation our maternity ward has been refurbished and modernised.
“As a local resident in East Cheshire I am passionate about our maternity services. I joined the Trust in September 2021 during the period of time when the services were suspended and was incredibly impressed by our exceptionally committed teams who are passionate about providing a quality maternity service for the local population.”
When the service was suspended the team of midwives were either relocated to host hospital sites at Stepping Hill, Wythenshawe and Leighton for women who preferred a hospital-setting birth, or remained as community midwives for women who chose a home birth.
The North West Maternal Medicine Network is bringing colleagues in maternity services together to update them on their programme of work.
The event is aimed at obstetricians, physicians (trainees and consultants), midwives, specialist nurses and all maternity service support professionals involved in the care of women/birthing people and their families.
Called the Network’s ‘Launch and Study Day’, it will be held at the Novotel, Worsley, on Monday, October 2.
Online booking will follow shortly.
The UK’s leading maternity safety charity, Baby Lifeline, has opened nominations for its UK Maternity Unit Marvels (MUM) Awards, which give parents, guardians and families the chance to say thank you to the team of professionals who made the birth of their child possible.
Baby Lifeline champions the work of midwives, obstetricians, neonatal doctors and nurses, anaesthetists, GPs and paramedics in the work they do, and these awards will recognise the best in the UK and say thank you to them.
They would like to invite anyone who experienced complications or problems with a pregnancy or birth in the last eight years (babies born after 2 May 2015) to nominate the team of professionals who looked after them and ensured the survival of the baby, for a MUM Award.
A star-studded judging panel including Dame Ruth May and Donna Ockenden, will select one winner from 10 regions across the UK (East of England, London, Midlands, North East and Yorkshire, North West, South East, South West, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), as well as a healthcare community winner and one overall national winner. Maternity healthcare winners will also be celebrated at an awards dinner at The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on Thursday 5th October 2023.
More information about the awards can be found here.
Click here to nominate.
A new webpage is live for the Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS).
The page covers what the LMNS is, its members, priorities and how it will know if it is making a difference.
The LMNS is a partnership of people involved in maternity and neonatal services, working together to improve services, make them safer, more personal and kinder to people who use them. Their work covers Eastern Cheshire because some women and birthing people from Eastern Cheshire receive their care in Greater Manchester.
Our GPs play a hugely important role in the work of the SCNs and a new campaign has been launched to raise awareness of the new roles which now form part of many general practice teams.
It features health professionals working in Greater Manchester, who explain their roles and how they can support patients.
Services in general practice and the community are being transformed to make it easier for patients to access a wider range of help from general practice, closer to home by phone or online. The general practice team has expanded to include a wide range of healthcare professionals who work alongside GPs and nurses to ensure patients receive the care they need as quickly as possible. This includes clinical pharmacists, physiotherapists, paramedics, physician associates, mental health therapists, social prescribing link workers and many more.
More than 1,600 staff have now been recruited into new roles in Greater Manchester as part of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme and they have already made a real impact in general practice and in the community delivering care to patients.
The campaign toolkit, put together by Greater Manchester Integrated Care, contains various useful resources including social media graphics along with accompanying messages, visuals for waiting room display screens and posters.
You can access it here and help promote these important messages on your social media channels and share the assets with your groups and networks.
For more information, please visit www.gmintegratedcare.org.uk/whoswhoatyourGP
Genomics will be fundamental to the future of healthcare, transforming outcomes for patients and families via innovative technologies which are being embedded within routine healthcare.
Clinicians will play a central role in mainstreaming genomics into healthcare and are invited to a webinar called ‘Niche to Necessity’ webinar: The circle of life?
This session will explore genomics and its use within nursing, midwifery and health visiting, and is designed for colleagues who have no, little, or general awareness of genomics. The webinar is suitable for everyone, from novice to expert.
Click here for more information and to book your place for the MS Teams event on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, 2pm-4pm.
Congratulations to Natasha Hirst, former Diabetes Network project manager, who has moved to become project manager (maternity and neonatal) for the Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS).
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