 World No Tobacco Day - Tuesday 31 May
Around 100,000 people die prematurely from smoking-related diseases every year
in the UK. Tobacco companies need to recruit new smokers to stay in
business and new customers are nearly always children and young people. Two
thirds (66%) of regular smokers start before the age of eighteen – the legal
minimum age for the purchase of tobacco - and two fifths (39%) start before the
age of 16.
World No Tobacco Day aims to encourage people to have one day without tobacco as a first step to giving up. Find out more here.
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Consultation on the relocation of sexual health services for Havering
residents
Havering Council is
consulting on changes to local sexual health services for the testing and
treatment of sexual transmitted infections and contraception. Our
proposals have been developed by the Council, with Barking, Havering and
Redbridge University Hospitals Trust (the local provider of these services) and
adjacent boroughs.
We are all agreed that high quality sexual health
services could be offered more efficiently and at lower cost if fewer sites
were used. However we realise that residents would have to travel further
to get to services if they were centralised, so we want to consult more widely
before we agree to any changes. Read
the consultation paper and respond here. Deadline for responses is Tuesday
5 July 2016.
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Public Health leaders visit
Havering Council
 Mr Duncan Selbie, Chief Executive Officer of Public Health England,
visited Havering Council in April. He was accompanied by Dr Harpreet Sood,
Senior Fellow to the Chair and Chief Executive of NHS England and Dr Deborah
Turbitt, Deputy Director of Health Protection and patch lead for North East and
North Central London. During his visit
he met with Cheryl Coppell, Isobel Cattermole, and Councillor Wendy Brice-Thompson from Havering Council and
discussed the work going on to create a new integrated model of
delivery for prevention and care. He later met with members of staff from the
Public Health Service and colleagues from all parts of the Council to hear about the
public health work we are doing in Havering and to present Public Health
England’s future plans.
Work stress, relationship or money
worries, feeling low or difficulty sleeping?
If things feel like they are getting on
top of you or you’re struggling to cope, you are not alone. Talking Therapies
is a free and confidential NHS service that will work with you to help you feel
better.
It provides expert support from people who understand what you’re
experiencing. Thousands of other people who feel the
same as you have used Talking Therapies and are now feeling like themselves
again. Find out more here.
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Cat brought to hospital to say goodbye to
owner
Queen’s Hospital has had its first feline visitor, as staff made sure
the last wish of a dying patient came true.
Cat lover Gladys Wray, 66, died of lung cancer at the Romford hospital and
it was feared her last wish to see her cat again could not come true when she
took a turn for the worse and was not able to return home before she died.
Hearing the family’s heart breaking story, staff on Mandarin A ward, as
well as the palliative care team, brought ginger and white cat Patch to
Gladys’ bedside for an emotional goodbye.
Husband David, 65, said: “It was a beautiful moment. I put her hand on
Patch to stroke him and everyone in the room heard her breathing change, she
knew he was there.”
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Praise
for new hospital ward
Patients
have been praising the new Japonica Ward at King George Hospital, which helped
them get back on their feet and fit to go home after a stay in hospital.
Albert
Murtell, 96, and Patricia Buckmaster, 81, both recently stayed on the new
inpatient rehabilitation ward, which helps patients who are unable to go home
right away after an operation get ready to live independently again.
They
described the ward as “a home from home” and the staff as “absolutely
marvellous”.
The
new ward is equipped with all the facilities needed to get a patient ready to
live independently, including a gym and a patients’ and visitors’ lounge.
You
can read more about Japonica Ward here.
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Detect
bowel cancer early with free screening
GPs
are reminding people that early detection could save your life.
If caught
early 90 per cent of bowel cancers can be treated, yet despite this, it is the
cancer with the second highest death rate in the UK.
Screening
remains one of the best ways to spot cancer early. The NHS Bowel Screening
Programme offers a free screening kit for people aged 60 to 74 who are
registered with a GP. The kit is sent to your home every two years to make it
as quick and comfortable as possible to do the test. Anyone over the age of 75
can request a screening kit by calling 0800 707 6060.
 Queens Hospital
parking changes
The Rom Valley Way car park, currently owned by
Morrisons, is now closed to visitors and members of the public.
If you are visiting the hospital by car please allow extra
time to find suitable parking. Details of
available car parks can be found here.
There are also several bus routes which include Queens
Hospital and details
can be found here.
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Get Set to Go –
what’s stopping you get active?
 The Get Set to Go campaign, supported by
Mind, is all about empowering women with a mental health condition to get
active or to start enjoying a sport. Having a mental health problem shouldn’t
stop you from being active or enjoying a sport and being active is a good way
of looking after your physical health, which is really important if you have a
mental health problem.
 There can be lots of barriers to exercising, including
having no time or little money to spend on yourself to low self-esteem or body
confidence. The Get Set to Go programme is here to support you, with our
award-winning online community, Elefriends,
taster sessions and our physical activity information
and resources available so you can live a more active life. Find
taster sessions happening near you.
Residents could soon be given more say
in how health and social care is delivered locally
Patients and service users in north east London may benefit from more
joined up health and social care and more say locally in how money is spent.
Havering, together with neighbouring London boroughs in Barking &
Dagenham and Redbridge have joined forces with local NHS trusts and clinical
commissioning groups to explore setting up a new model of care called an
Accountable Care Organisation (ACO).
The area was one of five pilots in the capital given the go-ahead by Chancellor
George Osborne when he signed a health devolution deal for London in December.
Work is now underway to draw up a business plan looking at whether
setting up an ACO would deliver significant improvements to health and social
care at a time of increasing pressure upon services.
Stakeholders, staff and residents are being asked their views through a
series of polls and engagement events.
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