NCIC News
All the latest from the Trust | November 2024
Intro from the Chair
Hello and welcome to our newsletter for foundation trust members and the wider community.
Last week’s cold snap was certainly a shock to the system and I hope you’ve all stayed safe and adjusted to the winter weather. Thank you to everyone who worked through it and special thanks to our community teams for their hard work reaching patients.
I was delighted to finally hear the news that the £12m funding for the new Urgent Treatment Centre in Carlisle has been approved. This will be a great resource for the city and will help ease pressures on our busy emergency department. I look forward to seeing it progress next year.
Until next time, with best wishes,
Steven Morgan
Chair
New Urgent Treatment Centre planned for Carlisle
Funding for a new £12m Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle has been approved.
The new UTC is part of a longer term plan to improve access to urgent care services in Carlisle easing emergency department pressures.
The current Emergency Department was built with capacity for 30,000 attendances each year. Last year we had 78,300 attendances which is more than two and half times its current capacity. This often leads to difficulties with overcrowding in the department and issues with privacy and dignity for our patients.
The UTC will be built next to the existing emergency department and will have 12 new clinic rooms with a separate waiting area for children and adults.
Work will start in January and we hope it will be finished by the end of 2025.
Positive feedback from women using our maternity services
Women in north Cumbria are 'treated with kindness and compassion' according to the results of a national maternity survey published this week.
Women who gave birth in February 2024 were surveyed about their experiences of care, from antenatal care, care during labour and birth, and post-natal care.
Compared to other NHS trusts, patient feedback was 'somewhat better than expected' for the key areas of 'labour and birth' and 'self-caring for you', and feedback was 'about the same' as other NHS trusts for 'care in hospital after the birth'.
Responses for North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) – which runs maternity services at the Cumberland Infirmary, West Cumberland Hospital and Penrith Community Hospital - were received from 156 women.
Winter wellness
World COPD Day took place last week just as the weather turned colder.
Cold spells can cause breathing problems for people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
Sometimes there may be periods when your symptoms get suddenly worse – known as a flare-up or exacerbation. It's common to have a few flare-ups a year, particularly during the winter.
If you or a family member has COPD, it's a good idea to keep an eye on the weather forecast and make sure you have enough of your medicine to hand in case your symptoms get temporarily worse.
Follow our tips to stay warm and well in the winter.
Results of National Urgent and Emergency Care survey
The results of the National Urgent and Emergency Care Survey were published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Patients who attended either an Urgent Treatment Centre (Penrith and Keswick) or A&E (Carlisle and Whitehaven) during February 2024 were surveyed about their experiences.
We are pleased to see that we are have performed "better than expected" compared nationally to other NHS trusts in a number of key areas for urgent treatment. These areas were 'Health professionals', 'Privacy', 'Care and treatment', and 'Leaving the urgent treatment centre'. We also scored "somewhat better than expected" in 'Tests' and 'Experience overall'.
Olympic ice skaters raise £600 for SCBU
An Olympic ice skating couple - whose baby was cared for in the Special Care Baby Unit at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle – have raised £600 for the unit.
Parents David and Stacey King, from Carlisle, returned to SCBU – where their daughter was born – to hand over the money.
The successful pair had a hugely successful ice skating career which included national titles and appearances at two Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Sochi.
Following retirement from competitive skating, the couple started a family. However, complications arose when Stacey contracted sepsis while she was pregnant with her daughter, Darcey.
The couple say SCBU did a “super job” of looking after their little girl after mum Stacey became very ill after contracting sepsis.
Diabetes educator scoops two awards
A diabetes educator and nurse from NCIC scooped two awards at the annual DESMOND awards.
Annette Routledge won Educator of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to Diabetes Education.
NCIC’s Diabetes Education Team was also shortlisted for Team of the Year.
DESMOND stands for Diabetes Education Self-Management Ongoing Newly Diagnosed. They design and supports the roll out of quality assured structured education for people living with Type 2 Diabetes.
Zoe Whitfield, Diabetes Education Coordinator at NCIC, said: “We are very pleased with the results and it’s great to celebrate on World Diabetes Day.”
Member and Governor update
This month’s column is from William Miskelly, public governor for Allerdale
It's been a while since I wrote one of these pieces for our Membership Bulletin. I was asked to write about my reasons for putting myself forward to be a Public Governor for Allerdale again, the short answer is my one you may remember me saying during my first term it is because I was asked to. Since I left there seems to have been a lot of change in members on the Governor's Council and the Board of Directors. There are some similarities in structure although last time I was heavily involved in the implementation of structural change it is nice to see the way these changes have embedded and the ways of working have matured with the test of time. I can say that although the ways of working have changed the focus of us Governor's remains clear we represent members, staff and public alike.
One thing that really stands out is we heard about the soft launch of the Elective Care Hub in NCIC area. We have been assured that we will hear more about this in the Spring if this is successful it will help reduce the waiting time for receiving elective procedures.
Another thing that stands out is if you look at our Governors Council meetings there seems to be an emphasis of making sure the meetings are held in more locations. The only downside to this is we all know that travelling around Cumbria is very time consuming in good weather with no road works but at the moment every road feels like it is being dug up.
Anyhow if you want to contact your Governors contact our lovely corporate governance team. They will get a message to us or get you an answer depending on the question.
Until our next bulletin or public meeting keep yourselves safe and enjoy this festive period.
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If you have any concerns or comments please contact your governors on the email below. We are here to raise any concerns on your behalf. More information on the members of the Governors’ Council and their role can be found on our website. If you have any comments or suggestions please contact us via the email below: AskYourGovernor@ncic.nhs.uk
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