Hello everyone,

In what feels like the blink of an eye, here we are in September. I would say something along the usual “summer is a distant memory"... but it really does feel like summer has been a distant memory this year as I certainly don’t feel like we’ve had one! Nevertheless, I hope you all managed to enjoy the summer holidays and, if you were able to, have some annual leave to rest and recharge as we now look forward into winter.

I hope you all agree as you scroll down that this month’s update is a bumper edition showcasing the amount of work happening across our health and care system. Preparations are now well underway to launch delivery of the winter vaccinations and, with children having returned to school, we’ve been urging parents to make sure children starting primary school are up-to-date on their MMR and pre-school boosters.

We’ve also got lots planned for the Fit for the Future engagement programme. More details below, but please do what you can to help us spread the word and the upcoming opportunities for as many people as possible across Greater Manchester to get involved over the next few months.

Best wishes,

Paul

Paul Dennett

Chair, Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership Board

NHS Greater Manchester is inviting people to share their views in a public engagement exercise, ‘An NHS Fit for the Future’, from now until January 2025.

This programme will give people and local communities the opportunity to consider issues faced by the NHS locally and across Greater Manchester including its financial position, tackling waiting times, and improving the prevention of ill health.

Over the next few weeks we’re focusing on finance. There are a number of ways to get involved including an online survey as well as our events which are taking place at a range of locations, with more to follow:

• An NHS Fit for the Future (in person event in Manchester) - Thursday 12 September, 1:30pm – 4pm, King's House Conference Centre, M1 7HB
• An NHS Fit for the Future (online event) - Wednesday 25 September, 6pm – 7:30pm, Microsoft Teams
• An NHS Fit for the Future (in person event in Trafford) - Thursday 26 September, 2pm - 4pm, Flixton House, M41 5GJ

For more information and other ways to get involved, visit the NHS Greater Manchester website.

NHS Greater Manchester will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday 18 September, 1.30pm - 2pm, prior to the NHS GM Board meeting.

The AGM will present our Annual Report and Annual Accounts for 2023/24.

The AGM and Board meetings are both held in public at The Tootal Buildings, 56 Oxford Street in Manchester, M1 6EU, or you can watch online with the link available on our website. If you wish to attend in person, please register your interest at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting by emailing gm.icp@nhs.net so reception can be notified.

Health and care services across Greater Manchester are working together to improve hospital discharge processes ahead of the busy winter period. Greater Manchester’s first Super Multi-agency Discharge Event (MaDE) will take place over seven days from Friday 6 September to Thursday 12 September 2024.

The Super MaDE event will bring together organisations from across Greater Manchester including social care, primary care, community, mental health services, local hospitals and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector. Services will work together to improve ‘patient flow’ across Greater Manchester, to reduce delays and to improve discharge processes. Discharging patients in a timely manner means patients can continue with recovery as well as making more hospital beds available for future patients.

To find out more information, visit the NHS GM website. If you work in health and care and want to share your views, or want to get involved, get in touch via gmhscp.gm-uec.group@nhs.net.

GP services across England are continuing with their collective action this month, which started on 1 August for an indefinite period of time.

Whilst there may be some disruption to services, GP practices are open as usual and patients can continue to make requests by phone, online or by walking in.

Patients should continue to use NHS 111 for urgent medical help when their GP practice is unavailable and if it is a serious or life-threatening emergency call 999.

Please remember that NHS 111 offers a SignVideo service for members of the d-Deaf community who require British Sign Language (BSL).

It may also be helpful to follow our Get To Know Where To Go advice.

A new statutory medical examiner service is being rolled out across England and Wales to provide independent scrutiny of deaths, and to give bereaved people a voice.

From 9 September 2024, it becomes law that all deaths not investigated by a Coroner will be reviewed by NHS medical examiners (ME) before a death can be registered. Currently, when someone dies, a doctor is notified and they decide if the death needs to be referred to the Coroner, usually when the cause of death is unknown, sudden or unnatural. If the death does not need to be referred to the Coroner, the doctor would complete the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) so the death can be registered.

From next week, it will be a legal requirement that once the doctor has completed the MCCD, it is reviewed by a ME. This extra step will strengthen safeguarding by reviewing how people died, supporting strengthening of mortality statistics, and making sure only appropriate cases are referred to the Coroner.

The only thing bereaved families will do differently because of these changes, is to have a telephone conversation with the medical examiner or medical examiner officer (should they choose to do so). Families will have five days after the death has been reviewed and signed off by a medical examiner to register it with the registrar’s office.

An extra 200,000 NHS dental appointments were available in Greater Manchester in the last year, thanks to the NHS GM Dental Quality Access Scheme. It was developed as a result of the challenges faced by patients who wanted access to an NHS dental appointment. The scheme initially ran from June 2023 - June 2024, and it has now been extended to March 2025

The NHS GM Dental Quality Access scheme was developed as a result of the challenges faced by patients who wanted access to an NHS dental appointment. The scheme initially ran from June 2023 - June 2024, and it has now been extended to March 2025. The scheme is part of the Greater Manchester Primary Care Blueprint, which is the five-year plan for all of primary care across our city-region and keeping it sustainable for the future.

Over 12 months, there were 119,000 new patients and 101,000 urgent patients seen. Disappointingly, another 22,400 people who made a dental appointment failed to attend, preventing others to benefit from these appointments.

There are currently 176 Greater Manchester practices signed-up to deliver the scheme - approximately 50% of all dental contracts across GM. The remaining practices are able to benefit from the national New Patient Premium offer. This is part of the national dental recovery plan, helping to ensure there is an increase in dental access in GM.

Don McGrath, Chair, Greater Manchester Dental Provider Board and Chair, Manchester Local Dental Committee, said: “Access to NHS dental services has been a significant challenge across the country as has the sustainability of the practices providing this service.

“Within Greater Manchester we have worked together between our dental providers and commissioning team to support practices to be able to commit to seeing NHS patients new to their practice and increasing access to dental care.

“Demand for access continues to be very high and practices can realistically only see limited numbers of patients each day. But by working together across the system we are supporting patients to be able to get the care they need.”

To find a dentist near you, visit the NHS website and enter your postcode. It will tell you which practices are accepting new patients - there may be a wait depending on practice availability. If someone needs emergency dental treatment, they can contact GM Urgent Dental Care seven days a week, between 8am and 10pm.

Deciding which primary care service you need can sometimes be tricky.

As part of NHS Greater Manchester's long standing Get To Know Where To Go campaign, we have created a primary care booklet which aims to help people find the care and support they need as quickly as possible.

The booklet breaks down each of the primary care services, what illnesses or health problems they can help with and, how to access them, making it easier to choose the right service for your needs.

Primary care services are often the first-place people go to when they need health advice or treatment. This includes general practice, community pharmacies, dentists and opticians. There is also information on ordering repeat prescriptions, details on out-of-hour services and advice on managing pain.

Please download the digital file and share in your own communications to help us get this information out far and wide. If you would like the information in another format, or translated into a different language, please email gmhscp.gm-campagins@nhs.net.

NHS Greater Manchester is urging every eligible person in the city region, to get the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine which is now available.

RSV is a major cause of respiratory illness and is particularly dangerous for infants and the elderly. The virus can lead to bronchiolitis and pneumonia which require hospitalisation and even intensive care in severe cases.

Those eligible for the new RSV vaccine include:

• those turning 75 on or after 1 September 2024
• those aged 75 to 79 on 1 September 2024 as part of the catch-up campaign
• those who turn 80 in the first year of the programme until 31 August 2025
• pregnant women from week 28 of their pregnancy

For more information about RSV and the vaccine, visit the NHS Greater Manchester website.

Residents in Wigan can now find out about the MMR vaccine as they order their favourite takeaway, thanks to a team of NHS nurses from the Health First.

A report has found that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Bolton enjoy positive experiences and outcomes from local services.

A joint inspection carried out by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in June has now been published. Inspectors focused on how effectively Bolton Council and NHS GM jointly plan, evaluate and develop services for children and young people with SEND.

However, they also consider the duties of other area partners such as local NHS providers, schools, early years providers, alternative provision providers, Bolton’s Parent Carer Forum and Bolton’s Information Advisory Service.

It finds that SEND service providers in Bolton are “passionately ambitious” for children and “inspire a culture of care and creativity”.

Inspectors highlighted several areas where the SEND partnership in Bolton is performing well. These include the involvement of children and families in care planning and strong collaboration between partners.

NHS GM’s Chief Executive, Mark Fisher, said: “Partnership working is the bedrock of how we deliver health and care services across Greater Manchester. This report for Bolton is testament to how working together across different agencies can really drive forward improvements that make a meaningful impact on the lives of our young people and making sure every child in Bolton has the opportunity to thrive.”

Eileen Stringer, the midwifery lead within the Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS), was presented with a long service award by Kate Brintworth, NHS England's Chief Midwifery Officer, at the Maternity Safety Conference.

During Eileen's 45 years of service, she has worked across many of our Greater Manchester hospitals. She has a strong academic side, and since 2014, has been an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Manchester, contributing to curriculum planning.

Her work within the Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Strategic Clinical Networks and the LMNS has focused on improving outcomes in many aspects of maternity care for all families. Most recently she has been the driving force behind the safety bundle called ‘Saving Babies Lives’.

Thank you, Eileen, for your dedicated service to the NHS and the people of Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire.

This week (2-8 September) is Know Your Numbers week - a national campaign raising awareness of high blood pressure and how to monitor it easily to reduce the chances of getting health problems in the future.

NHS Greater Manchester is urging the public to check their blood pressure in multiple ways:

• BP@home is available in most GP surgeries. Speak to your GP for more information
• If you’re aged over 40 you can get a free blood pressure check at your local pharmacy
• Some GP practices have ‘surgery pods’ that can take a blood pressure recording and send it directly into your GP health record without requiring an appointment
• Blood pressure monitors can easily be bought online for use at home

For anyone aged 40-74 with no pre-existing health conditions, the NHS Health Check is a free check-up of your overall health. This check can tell you if you are at a higher risk of health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and strokes, and provide tips on how to reduce risk. Ask your GP surgery if you’re eligible.

To find out more visit the NHS Greater Manchester website.

Cervical cancer is just one of the types of gynaecological cancer we're raising aware of this Gynaecological Cancer Awareness month.

Anyone with a cervix can get cervical cancer. It mostly affects women under the age of 45. Symptoms of cervical cancer include:

• vaginal bleeding that's unusual for you – including bleeding during or after sex, between your periods or after the menopause, or having heavier periods than usual
• changes to your vaginal discharge
• pain during sex
• pain in your lower back, between your hip bones (pelvis), or in your lower tummy

It's important to get any symptoms of cervical cancer checked as soon as possible.

If you have another condition like fibroids or endometriosis, you may get symptoms like these regularly, but it's best to be checked at your GP practice if your symptoms change, get worse, or do not feel normal for you.

Share the new cervical cancer awareness animation and screening awareness social media assets produced by Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance. OUTpatients, an LGBTIQ+ cancer charity have also produced a 'Cervical Cancer – Remove the Doubt’ campaign.