Archived News Articles

Big moves at NHS City and Hackney - Bigger, Brighter, Better

NHS City and Hackney is about to undergo a series of moves, in preparation for the new Primary Care Resource Centre being built at the St Leonard’s site. These moves affect our commissioning headquarters, which will be moving to Worship Street, and Community Health Services headquarters staff, which are moving to Hackney Community College.

Community health services based at St Leonard’s will also move, the main ones to affect patients are Locomotor (physiotherapy), The Ivy Centre (community sexual health) and the Foot Health Department. Please click below for the 'Press Release' with all the finer detail.

Big moves at NHS City and Hackney - Bigger, Brighter, Better - Press Release

NHS Camden announce future provider for Out of Hours GP services

Following a rigorous tendering process, NHS Camden are able to announce today that Camidoc have been awarded preferred provider status to supply out of hours GP services to over 200,000 local Camden residents.

Commenting on the decision, Liz Wise Acting Chief Executive of NHS Camden said:

“I recently made a public commitment that at the earliest opportunity I would announce which provider would go forward as the preferred supplier of out of hours services.

I am pleased to be able to announce today that following the recommendation of NHS Camden that Camidoc be awarded the contract, the three other PCTs (City and Hackney, Haringey and Islington) who are partners in the contract have endorsed our decision, and Camidoc will now go forward as the preferred supplier.

The awarding of the service to Camidoc provides continuity of service that I know local people value and should guarantee the high standards that have been experienced in recent years.”

The contract will come into effect during Summer 2010.

Concern over hospital’s responses to patient safety alerts

Hackney LINk has expressed concern about a report indicating that as of 29 December 2009 Homerton Hospital had failed to confirm that it had complied with 10 patient safety alerts issued to NHS trusts by the National Patient Safety Agency.

The LINk has written to the Chief Executive of the Homerton to request an explanation.

NHS trusts are supposed to report to a Central Alert System when the actions recommended by the alerts have been implemented. Implementation of such actions by the given deadlines is one of the ‘core standards’ set by the Department of Health.

The charity Action Against Medical Accidents used the Freedom of Information Act to find out which trusts had failed to confirm as of 29 December 2009 that they had complied with alerts for which the deadline had passed.

Its report indicates that 82 out of the approximately 400 trusts in England had failed to confirm that they had complied with 10 or more separate alerts.

One of the trusts which had failed to confirm that it had complied with 10 alerts was the Homerton. The 10 alerts involved are listed in the table which can be viewed here.

Ida Scoullos, Chair of Hackney LINk, said: “We want to know why the Homerton had failed to confirm that it had complied with these alerts. If it had not implemented the recommended actions, we want to know why not. If it had implemented the recommended actions, we want to know why it had not reported that it had done so”.

Mrs Scoullos suggested that progress on implementing patient safety alerts should be placed on the agenda for a board meeting of the trust at the earliest opportunity.

The report ‘“Adding insult to injury” – NHS failure to implement patient safety alerts’ was published by the charity Action Against Medical Accidents on 16 February 2010 and can be found on the charity’s website.

Consultation Event held by Hackney LINk

Hackney held a consultation event on the 24th of February 2010 to gather information about proposed changes to how health services are delivered. The event was attended by Hackney residents and we have had a good response. The following questions were discussed:

• Do you think that some services can be carried out in a community setting?
• Should any out patient services stay in hospitals?
• Do you support a move to greater specialisation of services?
• Would you be happy to travel further for your treatment if the quality of the service was better?

Hackney LINk Consultation Event 24022010

New Working Group Pages Launched

We have launched our new working group pages to keep you up to date on the progress of our 'Primary Care, Secondary Care and Adult Social Care' working groups.

Please click on the links below to access the pages.

Primary Care Working Group

Secondary Care Working Group

Adult Social Care Working Group

Hackney LINk Seeks Your Feedback On Priorities

Hackney LINk have been collecting issues from the community on health and adult social care services in the borough since May 2009. Hackney LINk Steering Group have finalised the four priorities and Working Groups which are:

Adult Social Care Working Group
To improve the quality of home care services delivered by care workers in Hackney

Primary Care Working Group
To promote the public voice in the development of primary care services, including access to services for asylum seekers.

Secondary Care Working Group
Improving mental health services through better care planning and ensuring that the system is not over-representative of certain communities.

Acute Services Working Group
To ensure that there is public involvement into the Health 4 North East London Acute Services Proposals.

Working Groups will do research around these prioritised issues and will consult with local communities, to find out about your experiences and suggestion on how these services should be improved.

• Would you be interested in joining a Working Group?
• Do you have any experiences or recommendations around these issues?

Please contact us on 020 8510 1972 to let us know.