News | Health


Doctors and clinics work


for ‘quick wins’ IMPROVED quality of patient care is a key aim as NHS West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) investigates trans- forming the working relationship between GPs (primary care) and hospital clinicians (secondary care). The CCG has written to all GPs/clinicians to investigate cur- rent difficulties and to seek inno- vative solutions, resulting in a short list of “quick wins”. One area of concern is the use


by GPs of the two-week cancer pathway for patients referred by a GP to be seen by a hospital con- sultant. GPs often regard this as the only way to get a quick ap- pointment for a patient. Secondary care clinicians say


they recognise the reasons for what they too often see as “inap- propriate referrals” but this was having ‘an impact on capacity in secondary care.’ A suggested solution is that


there could be a wider pathway for referrals which could be longer than two weeks but sooner than six months. GPs have expressed concern


about being overburdened with information in discharge letters from secondary care. GPs used to receive feedback from secondary care about “poor referrals”, a learning process that no longer takes place.


SECAmb plan


WHEN a single Clinical Commis- sioning Group is formed for Kent and Medway later this year it will consider whether the three- county (Kent, Sussex, Surrey) commissioning arrangement for South East Coast Ambulance Ser- vice is still appropriate to im- prove performance.


Home visits


HOME visits are still included in the GP contracts for which NHS West Kent CCG remains respon- sible, including Maidstone and Malling.


Health checks


A REPORT is due on proposals to ensure annual health checks for patients with learning difficulties in West Kent meet national tar- gets.


12 Malling January 2020


downsmail.co.uk


Lunch to thank hospital volunteers


VOLUNTEERS who help out at the hospital at Maidstone have been thanked for their hard work with a special lunch.


Trust staff, including Voluntary Services Manager Anne-Marie Stevens-Swain, served lunch to the Maidstone Hospital-based volun-


teers on Thursday, December 12. The event was held in the mar-


quee which had been erected for the Royal visit the day before.


Cancer care improves, according to figures


MAIDSTONE and Malling cancer care is fast improving, latest figures for West Kent reveal. The welcome news comes after


many months of seriously missed targets by the local hospital trust. The number of patients seen


within two weeks of an urgent GP referral hit 93% (national target 93%) in October 2019 and the year-to-date figure is 88.66%. For patients with breast cancer symp- toms, the October figure was 92.7% (target 93%). The October percentage for pa-


tients receiving first definitive treatment in 31 days was 97.92% (target 96%) and the year-to-date 98.01%. The figure for treatments in 62 days was 87.27% for October (target 85%) and 81.33% for the year to date. Hospital investment plans con-


tinue to focus on recruiting addi- tional staff in the most pressured specialities and to support sourc- ing and out-sourcing diagnostic capacity. The number of patients seen


within four hours by the accident and emergency departments in October was 88.9% (target 95%). Of these 18.9% were admitted to hospital main beds. This was the third busiest month ever, with


17,347 attendances, up 16% on Oc- tober 2018. About half of patients ringing a GP or NHS 111 said they were advised to go to A&E. Delayed transfers of care of pa-


tients considered fit enough for hospital discharge are still caus- ing serious loss of hospital bed days – more than 64,000 in each of the first two quarters of 2019


(about 4% of available beds). The major cause is lack of suitable ac- commodation for patients, mostly elderly. GPs are targeted to diagnose de- mentia in 67% of patients with this health problem. The rate for West Kent GPs is steadily improving – 61.4% in October compared with 58.7% in October 2018.


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