Health

Leaflet to calm fears over A&E downgrade

Published

3 years ago

October 22, 2021

Health board will explain how to get urgent care for children, as local NHS continues to be under extreme pressure

RESIDENTS in Pembrokeshire are being asked to look out for a leaflet about children’s hospital services, which will be delivered to households from next week (Week commencing 25 October 2021).

The leaflet will explain why temporary changes to re-locate the children’s daytime unit (PACU/Puffin Ward) and its specialist staff from Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest, to Glangwili Hospital, Carmarthen, have been extended into 2022. It will also provide information on how to access the right care for a child when they are unwell.

Medical Director and Deputy Chief Executive of Hywel Dda University Health Board Dr Philip Kloer said: “We hope the leaflet will be a useful, quick guide for parents and carers to keep handy in the home. We know that making decisions when a child is sick or injured can be stressful and we hope this guide will help.

“It includes a QR code which will take you to our dedicated web resource on children’s services, where there are also alternative versions of the leaflet and contact details for people who wish to share their experience of care.”

The temporary move of the service was made in spring 2020 due to the need for space within the hospital to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been extended due to the continuation of the pandemic and also to ensure that the increasing number of children with respiratory illnesses access specialist care when needed.

It means that Withybush Hospital currently treats only children with minor injuries such as minor wounds, minor burns or scalds, insect bites, potential broken bones if not badly misshaped, minor head or face injuries, or foreign bodies in the nose or ear; and booked outpatient appointments.

Children with serious illnesses or injuries are treated at Glangwili Hospital where there is a co-located Emergency Department and children’s hospital services, including an overnight children’s ward, children’s high dependency unit and children’s daytime (ambulatory) care.

Multi-professional clinicians, including local senior doctors in children’s care (paediatrics), emergency medicine, and anaesthetics, have supported the recommendation and the need for clearer messaging to the public in order to reduce the risk of delays in the treatment of children and young people.

Clinical Director for Women & Children’s services, Dr Prem Kumar Pitchaikani said: “We need to avoid the delay that may be caused when a child is brought to Withybush Emergency Department only to need a transfer to Glangwili Hospital. The continuation of this temporary service change, will ensure that very ill children, including the increasing number of children likely to have respiratory viruses this winter, will get access to their definitive treatment more quickly. They can also be monitored and treated quickly by specialists in the event that they deteriorate.”

Clinical Director for Emergency Medicine, and senior consultant at Withybush Hospital Emergency and Urgent Care Centre Dr Nicola Drake said: “It is critically important that sick children have the support of specialist paediatricians at the earliest opportunity. They also need early access to specialised equipment that is provided and monitored by paediatricians.”

The intention is to continue with the temporary position and commence a review in March 2022, with a report back to the Health Board in autumn 2022. The review will be scrutinised by the Health Board and Hywel Dda Community Heath Council and will include measuring outcomes for children and young people, as well as patient experiences and the views of communities.

More information on how and when the access children’s healthcare services locally is available on our website if you search ‘children’s services’.

If you have an experience of children’s services you wish to share with us, please search the website for ‘patient survey’ or ‘complaints’; email: [email protected]; or telephone: 0300 0200 159.

We will engage with our communities about the future of children’s services in 2022, but if you want to share your views at this point please; email: [email protected]; write to: FREEPOST HYWEL DDA HEALTH BOARD (you will not need a stamp); call: 01554 899 056 (this telephone number is not staffed, but messages will be recorded).

*Please note these changes affect children’s services at Withybush Hospital only and adult services at the hospital remain the same. Paediatric services at Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth, remain the same. There is no change to Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli.

Where to get help if my child is unwell?

Call 999 if your child has serious injuries or a life-threatening illness, including severe difficulty or irregular breathing, blueness around the lips, is pale, mottled and abnormally cold, has a fit or seizure, is extremely distressed, is very lethargic or unresponsive, develops a rash that does not disappear with pressure, or has testicular pain.

Go to a Minor Injury Unit (24/7 at Withybush Hospital; weekdays, daytime only and for children over 12-months at Tenby Hospital and Cardigan Integrated Care Centre) if your child has minor wounds, minor burns or scalds, insect bites, potential broken bones if not badly misshaped, minor head or face injuries, or foreign bodies in the nose or ear.

Contact your GP today if your child has an illness that won’t go away, indicated for example by a high temperature, shivering, muscle pain, cough, wheezing, increased effort to breath, persistent vomiting/diarrhoea/severe tummy pain, blood in their poo or wee, or dehydration. Call NHS 111 Wales (24/7) for urgent advice if you are unsure what to do. Call 111 for urgent help when your usual GP surgery, or other primary care service, is closed.

*You may be asked to take your child to Glangwili Hospital Emergency Department if input from specialist children’s doctors is required.

Treat at home or contact your pharmacist if your child has a minor illness or ailment such as a sore throat, cough, skin irritation, or if a young person needs emergency contraception. You can get help online by searching ‘NHS 111 Wales symptom checker’. Some pharmacies offer treatment without appointment for low level injuries.

If you are deaf or speech-impaired you can access 999 services using the Relay UK app and dialling 999, or NHS 111 by dialling 18001 111.

Health

Chairman opens new NHS 111 Wales Service Centre in Haverfordwest

Published

4 days ago

May 3, 2024

Tom Sinclair

IN a ceremonial occasion on Thursday (May 2), Thomas Baden Tudor, Chairman of Pembrokeshire County Council, inaugurated the new NHS 111 Wales service centre at Haverfordwest Ambulance Station. The event was marked by Mr. Tudor cutting the red ribbon, a task he was honoured to perform at the behest of Matthew Jones, Locality Manager of the Pembrokeshire Ambulance Service.

The NHS 111 service, which is accessible round the clock, offers urgent health advice and information about available services, including dental care and general medical guidance. This vital resource also provides support on managing illnesses and conditions and ensures continuity of care when GP offices are closed.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Tudor expressed his pride and privilege in participating in the launch, which underscores the community’s commitment to enhancing healthcare accessibility. The new service centre is expected to play a pivotal role in providing prompt medical advice and support to the residents of Pembrokeshire.

The service is free and can be reached by dialling 111 from any phone, ensuring essential healthcare advice is just a call away.

Health

Junior doctors secure strike extension in pay negotiations with WG

Published

5 days ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

BMA Cymru Wales has confirmed a positive development in its pay negotiations announcing that Junior doctors have secured a three-month extension to their overwhelming strike mandate.

This means that junior doctors in Wales now have the right to enact industrial action over their pay until 17 September 2024 instead of 17 June when the mandate was due to run out.

Recognising the strength of feeling amongst junior doctors and the overwhelming 98% vote by members in favour of industrial action back in December 2023, employers have agreed to honour this extension to allow talks with the Welsh Government to continue.

Co-chairs of the Welsh Junior Doctor Committee Dr Oba Babs-Osibodu and Dr Peter Fahey said of this development:

“We are pleased to be able to secure an extension to our overwhelming strike mandate. Whilst we hope to put an end to our pay dispute through pay negotiations by reaching a credible deal and restoring our pay, it was important to secure more time for our mandate.

“The extension allows us to focus on talks but also provides us with the scope to get organised and enact our legal right to strike should we need to. This is about honouring the emphatic mandate of our members.

“Doctors have experienced real terms pay cut of almost a third since 2008. They voted overwhelmingly to put an end to the devaluing of their service, they know they are not worth a third less than their predecessors and they know the time is now to stick up for the profession and turn the tide of the continued erosion of their pay once and for all”.

The Welsh Government and NHS employers have agreed to the extension as part of ongoing pay negotiations where all parties hope to reach an end to the pay dispute with junior doctors, SAS doctors and Consultants in Wales.

Last month, BMA Cymru Wales announced it was suspending forthcoming industrial action for Consultants and SAS doctors and putting plans on hold to announce more strike dates for junior doctors to allow pay negotiations to take place*.

The decision to enter pay negotiations was based on a significant proposal from the Welsh Government to form the basis of talks to end the pay disputes with all secondary care doctors including Consultants, SAS, and Junior doctors, with the aim of reaching deals which can be taken separately to their respective members.

In August last year, the BMA’s committees representing secondary care doctors in Wales voted to enter separate trade disputes with the Welsh Government after being offered another below inflation pay uplift of just 5% for the 23/24 financial year. SAS doctors on some contracts were offered as little as 1.5%. This was the lowest pay offer any government in the UK offered and less than the DDRB, the pay review body for doctors and dentists, recommended last year.

As part of their disputes, SAS doctors, consultants and junior doctors carried out successful ballots for industrial action. Since then, junior doctors have taken part in 10 days of industrial action since January this year.

Community

Plea to save at-risk Anchorage day care centre

Published

7 days ago

April 30, 2024

Bruce Sinclair - Local Democracy Reporter

AN ONLINE plea to save a Pembrokeshire day centre from being closed has been lodged with the county council.

The Anchorage Day Care Centre in Pembroke Dock has been a “safe and happy place” for adults with learning difficulties and additional needs for decades.

In more recent years it has expanded to support elderly dementia sufferers.

But now the centre is expected to close, with services instead being offered elsewhere in the county, including Haverfordwest and Milford Haven.

A series of engagement events have taken place at The Anchorage recently, outlining the reasons and the options in continued service.

One parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “The parents and carers are all very upset at the way we have been treated, kept in the dark and then presented with what is a fait accompli to close the Anchorage, while at the same time going through the motions of a ‘consultation’ with us.

“The clients at The Anchorage have friendships with each other and staff going back decades in some cases.

“One young woman who attends ran out of the first meeting sobbing when she was told it was going to close. Another, at the second meeting, tried to address the meeting but was so chocked up at the thought of not seeing her friends anymore she could hardly speak.”

She added: “The Anchorage has been a respite in the day for parents and a safe, happy place for the clients.

“Everyone feels that the county council is not considering the feelings of the clients, most of whom are upset and frightened by change to their routine.”

Another person raising concerns said: “The centre is set to close as early as next month – meaning the sudden retraction of a service which, for many families in the area, is nothing short of a lifeline.

“I’m not sure PCC understand the gravity of the impact that closing the centre will have on the lives of many people, particularly the customers, some of whom may not understand or cope well with such a total upheaval of the familiarity of their daily routine.

“It’s so upsetting that the people who will be most affected by the closure of the centre are as much a part of the Pembrokeshire community as anybody else that the council claims to represent, and yet in this decision, I feel they’re not being seen as such.”

Since then, an online e-petition, on the council’s own website has been launched calling for it to stay open.

It says: “The centre provides day-care support to a number of vulnerable adults with varying levels of disability who are unable to process, and understand, the implications of such a decision.

“Some of those attending the centre have been doing so for over 20 years and continuity is a vital part of their lives. Removing this service will have nothing other than a huge detrimental impact on their health and mental wellbeing.”

The petition has attracted 284 signatures to date.

A Pembrokeshire County Council spokesman said: “Following the engagement sessions held with families and service users regarding the future of the centre on April 10 and 17 at the Anchorage, families said that they would like to maintain the Anchorage Day Centre and explained that they would write to the council in order to ask for the decision to be overturned.

“People who attend the service will be offered alternative care, all service users are currently having their individual care needs assessed by social work teams to fully understand which other services best meet those care needs.”