Update 06/07/2018
Cornwall NHS Factsheet July 2018
A&E
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- 84,680 more people seen <4 hrs in 2017/18 compared to 2009/10.
- In the year-to-date, 97.0% of people coming to A&E were seen within 4 hours.
- In May-18 the figure was 96.5%
Workforce
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- There are now 107 more hospital doctors than 2010
- There are now 50 more nurses than 2010
Activity 2009/10 2017/18 Difference
Diagnostic tests 118,650 147,026 28,376
2009/10 2016/17 Difference
Operations 82,934 95,674 12,740
CQC
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- The overall CQC rating for Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust was Inadequate (Oct-17)
- By May 2017, 100% of General Practices (which had been rated by CQC) in the NHS Kernow CCG area were rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’
Improving Access to Psychological Therapies - NHS Kernow CCG
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- 90% of people referred to the IAPT programme are seen within 6 weeks (target 75%) compared with 89.2% nationally
- 99% of people are seen within 18 weeks (target 95%) compared with 98.7% nationally
Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly STP Footprint
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- This year’s funding is £1.0 billion
- This is an increase of £28.6 million on the previous year – a cash increase of 2.9%
NHS Kernow CCG
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- This year will receive £773.2 million - a cash increase of 2.83% on last year
Cornwall Local Authority
Over the next three years Cornwall Local Authority could receive £24.0 million of the additional £2 billion funding announced for social care in the spring 2017 Budget.
Update 10/05/18
I have attached the updated factsheet on the NHS in Cornwall for March 2018.
Update 15/03/18
I have attached the updated factsheet on the NHS in Cornwall for February 2018.
Update 25/01/18
Healthwatch Cornwall regularly publishes updates on the Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STP) in Cornwall, including proposals for an Accountable Care System (ACS). You may read the latest update here:
https://www.healthwatchcornwall.co.uk/our-work/shaping-our-future-cornw…
Update 09/01/18
I have attached the updated factsheet on the NHS in Cornwall for December 2017.
Update 08/01/18
I have attached an updated briefing from the House of Commons Library showing that Cornwall does get its fair share of funding above the England average.
Earlier this year Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust received £1m in capital funding to prepare for this winter.
Update 20/12/17
I have attached below a factsheet on the NHS in Cornwall for November 2017 which constituents may find useful.
Update 08/12/17
In Cornwall, the Shaping our Future programme has led health and social care leaders to push forward with an Accountable Care System (ACS).
The aim is to have this in shadow form by April 2018.
It will incorporate an integrated strategic commissioner for health and social care, and a network of providers with a single leadership team that will be known as the Accountable Care Partnership (ACP).
The ACP will involve providers for acute, mental health, community, primary, children’s, ambulance, wellbeing and social services as well as public, independent and voluntary bodies. The ACP will be clinically and professionally led.
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Councils, NHS Trusts, NHS Kernow and potentially others are currently finalising a commitment document, which will codify the principles of collaboration within the ACS.
At the end of October, Dr Iain Chorlton, Chair of at NHS Kernow, shared his thoughts on accountable care at: http://www.shapingourfuture.info/plans-accountable-care/
NHS England produced a a model contract for accountable care organisations (ACO) in the NHS in August this year. ACOs are currently only an option for consideration when planning health and social care integration.
We are not clear how/if this will be incorporated in future plans if/when a permanent ACS begins.
The King’s Fund provides an overview of what an ACO is at: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/accountable-care-organisations-explained.
According to the Health Service Journal’s report on NHS England’s ACO document it said the content stated that establishing an ACO can be “lengthy and complex”, and suggested most areas need to move to an “accountable care system” first.
There have been considerable concerns about how this may affect Cornwall services, as well as questions relating to the legal basis of ACO proposals such as a legal challenge made by a campaign group and backed by law firm, Leigh Day, in October.
The SoF team is discussing Cornwall’s ACS at the first in public Transformation Board meeting on Dec 19 at New County Hall, Truro, TR1 3AY, from 2pm to 4pm.
Healthwatch Cornwall encourage people to attend or provide feedback on this topic via their Have Your Say online option.
Update 24/11/17
I have attached below a factsheet on the NHS in Cornwall which constituents may find useful.
Update 06/10/17
Like my constituents my family and I depend on our local NHS and care services. We all want Treliske to deliver good quality and safe services with people not to having to wait too long for treatment. I know that the staff at Treliske work hard to deliver high quality care and services, often in challenging circumstances. The government is committed to enabling the staff at Treliske to deliver high quality and safe services at Treliske. In the last few years, the regulators of our NHS and care services have been given more resources to undertake rigorous, independent reviews. The Care Quality Commission recommended “special measures” for Treliske. This means that NHS England will provide additional support to help Treliske make improvements. Other hospitals have undergone the same process and have come out stronger. It's not an easy process but it can work. As is well documented, one of the main problems at Treliske is the fact that people who should be treated at home or in a more appropriate care setting are not. The Care Quality Commission highlighted the issue of delayed transfers of care. Cornwall Council now needs to step up and work more closely, with greater urgency with Treliske and NHS Commissioners. Cornwall Council has been given additional funding for social care and needs to spend this money on social care now. There will be those that say it's all about more funding. Of course the NHS needs to be well funded. Every year Cornwall does receive more funding. What is as important is how the money is spent. With support from NHS England, our health and care system leaders now have the opportunity to deliver the changes that they have identified need to happen. I will continue to do everything that I can to support them.
Update 03/04/17
It's really important to me that mental and physical illnesses are treated equally. So I am delighted that after years of hard work the Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has secured the funding for a new child and adolescent mental health unit that will be built in Cornwall following an announcement made by NHS England last week.
This news means that for the first time, children and young people in Cornwall will have access to specialist mental health beds in county. The new 12 bed unit will accommodate young people up to the age of 18. Previously children from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly had to travel out of county for this kind of service. The ability to regularly see family and friends while in hospital is a key element in people’s recovery, and especially in the case of children.
The Trust will build the new unit on land adjacent to Bodmin Hospital where it will benefit from close links to the Trust’s other specialist mental and physical health services. It is hoped that building work will begin in Spring 2018.
I am also delighted that NHS England is funding new mental health facilities for local mums suffering post natal mental illness. While the location has yet to be decided, it will be much closer to home than current specialist services. This builds on the new service introduced into Cornwall in 2013, following the campaigning and support of the Angela Harrison Foundation.
NHS England has also offered RCHT funding for a fully-staffed team operating 24/7 in hospital, offering a one-hour response to emergency mental health referrals in A&E.
Ensuring all young people have good mental health is important. I am determined that all parents and schools have good links to advice and services.
Update 29/03/17
While the process has been painfully slow, following meetings in Cornwall last week, I am hopeful that local leaders of our NHS and care services are making progress in agreeing plans to improve our health and care services.
Each day, there are around three wards of people waiting in Treliske to go home or onto another care setting but can’t. Why, because of the continued inability of Cornwall Council to work constructively with care providers to enable them to safely leave the hospital.
The Liberal Democrat and Independent Councillors are in charge of Cornwall Council. They choose how to spend our money. They choose to spend less on social care than other councils despite the fact we have more frail elderly people than many places.
Along with my MP colleagues we have made sure Cornwall Council is receiving extra, new funding for social care – £12 million this year alone. We will do everything we can to ensure they actually spend it on social care so that people who have their care funded by the taxpayer or pay for it themselves have access to the support they need to enable them to leave hospital safely.
It is however down to Council Councillors to deliver the joined up service promised – the joined up service that other parts of the country have achieved.
Update: 14/03/17
The Shaping Our Future engagement report, which is based on feedback from local citizens between November 2016 and February 2017, has now been published.
The Shaping Our Future programme is a joint approach by all the major public sector health and care organisations in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly with three aims:
* Improve the health and wellbeing of the local population.
* Improve the quality of local health and care services.
* Deliver financial stability in the local health and care system.
A copy of this report is attached below.
Update: 27/02/17
As the campaigning is well underway for the Cornwall Council elections in May, there is a great deal of misinformation being spread about our local NHS funding. I hope you find the document below, produced by the impartial and expert House of Commons Library, useful. It clearly demonstrates that Cornwall does get its fair share of funding now, in fact more than the England average. This was not always the case and I am proud of my work to secure this change. Of course money is important and I will continue to ensure the NHS is provided with the resources it needs, but spending it wisely is equally important.
Update 26/01/17
Winter is always a challenging period, and I want to thank all NHS staff and carers for their hard work and dedication. The NHS reported that, on the Tuesday after Christmas, it had its busiest day ever and that, earlier in December, it treated a record number of patients within four hours. Overall, A & E departments across the country are seeing 2,500 more patients within the four-hour standard every single day compared to 2010. The NHS made significant preparations for this winter, because winter is always a difficult time, including having 3,000 more nurses and 1,600 more doctors in full-time employment. Despite this effort nationally and locally, there remain problems we need to solve.
Having spent time in the A&E department at Treliske, shadowing the team there, I saw for myself the great job they are doing, often under considerable pressure. I also saw that many people who came along to A& E could have been cared for by their local pharmacist, Minor Injuries Department or GP. Despite the hard work of our local GPs, sometimes people wait too long to see their GPs. Sadly, the changes to the GP contract in 2004 resulted in 90% of GPs opting out of out-of-hours care. But we have been putting that right. Now 17 million people in England—about 30% of the population—have access to weekend and evening GP appointments. More than that, we have committed to a 14% real-terms increase in the GP budget by 2020. That is an extra £2.4 billion and that is expected to mean an extra 5,000 doctors working in general practice.
Ultimately, the issue of rising demand for NHS and care services is about demographic change and, as I have been saying for some time, more needs to be done to respond to that change. Over the decade to 2015, we saw a 31% increase in the number of people living to 85 and older. This is a cause for celebration, but sadly it is not matched by an increase in disease-free life expectancy. We know that when people of that age go to A&E at this time of year, there is an 80% chance that they will be admitted to hospital.
We also know that we will need to look after 1 million more over-65s in five years’ time and will need to continue to increase investment in the NHS and social care system. That is happening. But it's not just about spending more tax payers money. It is about making smart decisions about how the money is spent.
The truth is that, to solve this problem, we need not only to increase the number of people working in general practice, which is why we are funding the second biggest increase in the number of GPs in the NHS’s history, but also to increase the number of carers and the support for family carers. Ensuring we have enough good quality care services is the responsibility of Cornwall Council. Cornwall Council need to address this and they and our local NHS leadership urgently need to get on with joining up the care they provide. This is happening in other parts of the country. This would prevent the 'bed blocking' we experience in Cornwall with all its dreadful knock on consequences, including cancelled operations.
As the local NHS consults on their plans for improving our local NHS and care services, I will continue to encourage the implementation here of successful approaches which have been developed in other parts of the country, where the joining up of services has improved outcomes for local people.
Sadly, as we approach the local elections in May, there is a great deal of scaremongering about the future of the NHS and talking down the considerable achievements that have been made. So let me set the record straight. We have more patients being treated and more saying they have been treated safely and with dignity and respect.
Next year the NHS will be 70 years old. I am determined to continue to ensure we have the safest, highest quality care anywhere in the world. When we have difficult winters and an ageing population, of course that makes things more challenging, but it also makes me more determined.
Update 21/12/16
In a letter sent by the Chief Executives/Chief Officers of the main NHS and local government bodies working on the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, I have been assured that they are increasing cooperation between themselves to ensure that the modernization plans for the region’s health services are as effective as possible.
The Chief Executives/Chief Officers will be meeting monthly to maximize cooperation between their organisations. I welcome this news and believe that it will be of great benefit to the Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly STP.
