Picture by Barbara Wilson
CAMDEN CARERS' LIAISON GROUP
The last meeting of the Carers Liaison Group (CLG) took place on 21st October 2009, from 11am – 1pm at The Salvation Army Chalk Farm Centre, NW3.
The theme of the meeting was Contract Monitoring of the Adult Community Nursing (ACN) Service (ie, Community and District Nursing). Speakers were Archna Mather and Aimee Fairbairn from NHS Camden.
The new NHS standard contract for community services was introduced in April 2009. It requires a ‘service specification’ which sets minimum levels of quality and performance, entailing monitoring at quarterly meetings, in areas such as:
- responsiveness - the number of urgent referrals responded to within four hours;
- evidence of staff training in basic procedures, such as continence assessment;
- assessment of patients at time of referral;
- palliative care;
- referral to other services.
The initial findings of Camden’s public consultation on the CAN, which closed on 9th October, revealed that the majority of respondents were over 70 years of age and their priorities for improvement of the service were:
- the ability to self-refer;
- better communication between GPs, community nurses and hospitals;
- the speed of responsiveness - people felt they should not have to wait more than two hours if their case was urgent;
- continuity of care.
Based on these findings the Community Nursing Service must be committed to:
- promoting the health and independence of patients;
- supporting patients with long-term care needs;
- developing good relationships and communication between health/medical professionals and social services;
- recognising the need for the service to be responsive to the changing needs of the population - for example, the fact that people are living longer;
- providing care ‘closer to home’ and/or in the place most convenient to patients;
- providing the service to anyone registered with a Camden GP.
CAMDEN CARERS CENTRE STALLS
Camden Carers' Centre runs stalls from time to time in community centres, hospitals and at carers' events. Look out for details on this site and in our quarterly Newsletter.
