The Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence are running a series of meetings to provide an update on what they are doing to make the regulation more patient-centred and to listen to your views as your opinion really matters to them.

At the meetings you can:

• Learn what they found in the Performance Review of the health professional regulators this year
• Give your views on two new projects:  Measuring Regulators’ work and How regulators involve patients and the public
• Hear where they have got to with creating a single point of contact for complaints about a health professional
• Work with them to develop their plans to engage with patients and the public.

The meetings are taking place in Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast and London.  All the meetings start at 11.00am and registration opens at 10.30am on the day.  The details for the meeting in Manchester are set out below:

18th October 2010

Room 4/5 Manchester University Staff house Conference Centre, Sackville Street, Manchester, M1 3BB.

To view the programme for these events and find out about the work of CHRE and their expenses policy, please visit their website at http://www.chre.org.uk/public/271/

Places at the meetings are limited and you are encouraged to register early to avoid disappointment.  Registrations for all events close on 1 October 2010.

The first meeting of the Staffordshire LINk Co-ordinating Group is taking place on Friday 10th September 2010 at 12.15pm and will be held in the meeting room at the Community Council of Staffordshire offices based at Friars Mill, Friars Terrace, Stafford.  ST17 4DX (www.staffs.org.uk).  Anyone is welcome to attend the meeting and the agenda will be posted on the website shortly.  Anyone wishing to ask a question of the Co-ordinating Group in respect of an agenda item, should submit their question in writing/email at least 5 calendar days before the meeting to the LINk Support Team.   Time at the end of each meeting will be allocated in order to respond to any questions submitted.

A series of consultation events organised by Regional Voices, a Strategic Partner to the Department of Health, to discuss the implications and impact of the changes proposed in the Health White Paper are taking place in September.  Theses events are for the voluntary and community sector, and patients, service user and carers groups.  Further information and a booking form can be downloaded by clicking here.  The NHS White Paper and consultation documents produced by the Department of Health can be accessed in the Resources: Reports section of the Staffordshire LINk website.  The consultation documents are entitled:

Local Democratic Legitimacy

Transparency in outcomes - a framework for the NHS

Commissioning for Patients

Regulating NHS Providers

The consultation period for voting on the LINk’s workplan priorities for 2010/2011 concluded on Monday 19th July.  LINk participants were able to at the LINk AGM; on-line voting via the LINk website and paper votes cast at community engagement events and by post.

The results are shown above and the top 6 priority themes identified are:

Acute Care Services, Respite/Day Care Services, Dignity and Respect, Mental Health Services, Carers Services and Service provision.

A work programme is now being formulated in order to progress these themes and if you are interested in being involved in any of the above work plan priorities, please contact the LINk Support Team on 01785 887990 or by email at enquiries@staffordshirelink.staffs.com to register your interest.

We would like to thank all those who have contributed to the voting consultation.

The on-line voting poll has now closed.  The home page of the LINk website shows the results of the on-line voting by indicating the percentage of votes given to each theme.  These results will now be added to the AGM votes and paper votes which were received by 19th July 2010 and posted on the LINk website home page for information.

West Midlands Ambulance Service has developed a patient survey for anyone who has dialed 999 for medical assistance.  The survey will be another avenue (in addition to PALS, Complaints and Compliments) of measuring patient experience so they can improve the service that they deliver.

The survey can be accessed via the home page of the Trust’s website at www.wmas.nhs.uk - look out for the box which is illustrated below:

For anyone not comfortable with using the internet they can contact the Patient Experience Department on 01384 246 370 and request a paper copy of the survey or one of the team will be happy to talk through the survey over the phone.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is developing proposals for revalidating pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.  Revalidation is a process to check periodically that a registered pharmacist or pharmacy technician remains up-to-date and continues to be competent and fit to practice.  The Royal Pharmaceutical Society have commissioned Prime Research and Development Ltd to appraise several different approaches to revalidation and they have produced a survey asking for your comments.  Revalidation will affect you, whether you are a member of the public, a pharmacy user, an employer of pharmacists or a pharmacist or pharmacy technician, so it is important to contribute your views. 

If you would like to contribute to the survey, please click on the weblink below.  All responses will remain confidential to the project team only.  The dealine for comments in Monday 12th July 2010.

http://www.surveymonkey.conm/s/QS9YBK3

Newcastle-under-Lyme 50+ Forum invites you to a Consultation Forum on Thursday 15th July from 7pm - 9pm at St George’s Church Hall, Queen Street, Newcastle-under-Lyme, ST5 2UB.  For more information, please call 01782 562659.

AGM 16th June 2010 from Staffordshire LINk on Vimeo.

The LINk AGM took place on Wednesday 16th June at Stafford and Rural Homes, Stafford.

The event was attended by 39 people including individuals and representatives from the following organisations:

Staffordshire Action for Blind People

Transport and Travel Research

Home Instead Senior Care

Elite

Stoke LINk

Age Concern

Local Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Joint Commissioning Unit.

Presentations were given by Jackie Owen, Interim Director of Staffordshire LINk of the Annual Report and Accounts; Andy Halden, Community Council of Staffordshire of the engagement activities undertaken over the last couple of months and emerging issues; Jackie Owen and Sue Baknak (Host Team) of the work plan themes for priority voting by LINk participants; and Julie Thompson-Edwards (Local Authority) with an update on the procurement process for a new LINk Host organisation.

LINk participants were able to vote for their top 6 priorities from the themes presented using a keypad Activote system or on paper. An on-line poll is also available on the LINk website.

Participants who attended at the AGM were very positive in how the LINk is moving forward and felt that great strides had been made over the last 6 months.

Following the LINk’s commission of a piece of research into stroke services across Staffordshire, the findings by Lesley Pattenson which were presented at a Stroke Workshop on Wednesday 19th May 2010 are now available in a final report that has been produced.  If you would like to download the full report, please click here.  If you would like to be involved in the LINk Stroke Project, please contact the LINk Support Team on 01785 887990.