Minutes of the Meeting Held on 14Th October 2014 at Airedale

Minutes of the meeting held on 14th October 2014 at Airedale

Present:

Alex Winterbone Suffolk

Krys Jarvis Shropshire

Alan MooreManchester

Christine RiceSurrey

Brian SmithNorthern

Angela CannonStoke on Trent

Samantha SterlingLeeds

Elaine CoopeAiredale

Yvonne BaronChorley, South Ribble & West Lancs

Maria SherringtonKnowsley

Lynne PetersBridgewater

Judith Ruddle North Tees & Hartlepool

Julia StellBolton

Apologies

Keith RobertsSouth Wales

Ann DysonBrighton

Hazel DerbyshirePreston

Sarah SherwoodBedfordshire

Zena Wisbey

Rory DaviesPreston

Sue CobbyEast Sussex

Francis BeavisGloucestershire

Julie CroysdaleLeicester

Henry LumleyBristol

Caroline DesjardinsLeicester

Introductions

Minutes of the meeting on 7th July 2014 were agreed

Matters Arising

Naidex

Krys was going to send out a call for papers but this has not gone out yet, she circulated a draft document for comments at the meeting. Krys was contacted by Sarah Bailey who is keen to know what topics we would like to have included in the programme. Krys will email the people we met in Northampton copying her in confirming what we agreed then.

Contact from a specialist Occupational Therapist for children requiring ventilation from the Royal Brompton Hospital. She is keen to publicise an article and spark a debate across the country. Maybe she could put a poster on our stand.

National Standards

Krys is on the assessment group of the wheelchair summit – after discussion at a sub group meeting Krys put forward that we have an assessment section in the standards, and subsequently she has revised this section.

Sue has done some work on the formatting which was sent round in July and we now need to update the content.

Agreed to share out the document in sections to update.

Sections:

1-10 North West region

11 Krys

12- 14 Brian Smith

15-18 Yorkshire

19- 22 Angela & West Midlands

Appendices to be included in the sections to which they are relevant.

Agreed to check the six work streams identified for the Wheelchair Summit and see if any of that needs including.

All sections including their changes to be e mailed to Krys by 14th November.

Specialist Commissioning

A document was released by NHS England yesterday (the commissioning intentions for next year) which confirms that wheelchair services will be commissioned by CCG’s

Reference Costs

No further update from Henry.

De Loittes report has been circulated but is attached again here.

Military Veterans

No update

Web Site:

Ian’s notes are attached to these minutes.

Ian is still owed money as we have not been able to access the bank account, however from a conversation preceding this meeting it would appear that Alex may be a signatory to the account, she will contact Sarah and arrange to make enquiries and see if we can get this sorted out.

It was agreed that Krys will devise a draft welcome letter which could be sent to those enquiring about forum Membership setting out the subs and other information.

We agreed that we will charge subs at £50 per year if we get too much money in the account we could make it every 2 years but this will allow our costs to be covered for the website for this year and next.

Sarah to send out invoices as soon as the bank account is sorted out.

Competencies and Training

Everyone is using the competencies for new staff

Krys is on the PMG training group but training to fill in the gaps has not progressed any further

Sam has developed some Band 2 admin competencies in the same format and will circulate

MNDA

Derek Williamson has sent is apologies, Sam ran through his presentation which is attached here.

Discussion around therapist posts in MNDA association some are doing assessments and wheelchair therapists are concerned that they will be deskilled. This is not consistent nationally.

FOI Requesting numbers and waiting times had been received by most people

Wheelchair Summit

There are 6 working groups,. Everything had been called “Better” but Krys raised “what is it that is bad about it in the first place”. The answer for the assessment group was about waiting lists and equipment not the assessment process so it was agreed that “better” is the wrong terminology and will be taken off the titles.

NHS England have seen that the work is taking longer than they thought and so have brought in NHS IQ to assist,

Whizz Kidz published Commissioning of Wheelchair Services – CCGs working to improve health outcomes for patients reduce delays and save costs.

Anonymous letter to Jeremy Hunt and others including Krys. This letter criticises the links between NHS England and Whizz Kidz and suggests that they are illegal.

Krys discussed with PMG and the idea was to get all interested parties together to respond but Krys felt that this would take too long. A holding letter was sent to Rosamund Roughton, National Director of Commissioning Development

NHS England from PMG, BHTA and NWMF requesting a meeting to discuss the letters contents. A reply was received which agreed to a meeting refuting allegations and suggesting that the draft Service Specification document which has been circulated addresses this issue.

There was a meeting on 1st October between PMG, BHTA and NWMF and Rosamund Roughton, Claire Aldiss (NHS England) and Alex Kamadu (NHS IQ) which agreed that a statement needs to be produced which comes from NHS England but includes the other organisations.

A draft letter was produced and a statement confirming that there were high quality services around the country and that NHS England is keen to work with all service providers.

Krys will circulate some of the correspondence separately to forum members only.

It was agreed that NWMF agreed with the contents of the letter

Krys has been invited to attend a meeting to organise the content of the next wheelchair service summit day.

Next Summit 27th November at the Oval – we need to get as many people there as possible particularly clinicians – to get an invite we need to contact Claire Aldiss,

CECOPS

Meeting organised by Brian Donnelly to discuss wheelchair part of the guide.

BHTA report The economic benefits of better provision of equipment for disabled and terminally ill children is available at:

ResMag update

Comments received that some of the students on placement are not showing the skills expected of them, Brian is taking this up with Simon Fielden.

Brian has a meeting with Bradford looking at accrediting prior learning

Pursuing involvement with Wheelchair Summit

Looking at apprenticeship schemes in the long term

Draft document on competencies on environmental controls and communication aids has been produced.

BSc course Coventry, is in it’s final year.

The name IPEM Voluntary register has changed to the Register of Clinical Technologists.

General Roundup

Yorkshire and Humber doing a time to provision survey working with the improvement academy.

Manchester moved premises and changed name – next meeting there.

Airedale moving all their services together on to the hospital site in November

Newcastle meeting with 5 commissioners

Any Other Business

• Invitation to join the British Standards Institution committee; Chris Rice already there representing the College of OT, meetings are in London. Krys will send an e mail round asking for volunteers.

• A letter has been received from Dot Tussler – Chairperson of Multidisciplinary association of spinal cord injuries professionals concerned about wheelchair provision
• Krys met with her 11th September, there are varying approaches amongst wheelchair services in dealing with the specialist centres for spinal injuries, a lot of services give a standard chair e.g. an Action 3 and see what the patients are like when they get home, there is a general reluctance to agree other therapists prescriptions. The meeting focussed on can we do something better. From a wheelchair service perspective the Spinal Injuries units sometimes suggest equipment that a service does not provide, and the patients situation often changes when they get home. From the spinal injuries units perspective if we only supply a standard chair then the patients take a step back when they go home. Krys has agreed to progress some sort of national guidance, and has produced some draft information including a national set of equipment that we will all accept prescriptions for. Also suggested a standardised referral or report form,

• E mail from Daniel Burden, Spinal Injuries Association asking for the forum to contribute to an enquiry including: NHS Continuing Healthcare, Wheelchair provision. Regarding ventilated spinal injuries patients. Evidence is to be produced by 17th October, there is a template on their website. There was a discussion around a response from Forum which included:

Postcode lottery regarding what Continuing Healthcare will fund

Inappropriate equipment provision

Lack of home visits by spinal injury units

Spinal Injury units reluctance to move to power chair from high end manual

• Rebecca Johnson Muscular Dystrophy Campaign wrote to Krys saying she wants to get more involved with the forum, Krys contacted her and requested more information. Her proposals raised issues relating to Muscular Dystrophy such as wheelchair services failing to provide appropriate power chairs with appropriate seating and things like riser functions. She wants to develop a best practice document for people with such conditions. She sent a further letter talking about functionality and health benefits of having appropriate equipment. Krys has asked her to redraft her proposals;

• E mail from Michael Dolan regarding the wheelchair passport scheme – survey monkey link was previously circulated. Please complete.

• E mail from Leicester regarding deliberate abuse or loss of equipment sparked a general discussion, usually services replace equipment but maybe only with a basic wheelchair, some managers go out with the repairer and have a discussion with the patient, some send stiff letters, In the case of stolen equipment most demand a crime number, many make a charge for lost cushions particularly when it is not the first time that patient has lost one. Agreed we will produce a guidance document as everyone is coming up with very similar answers – AW to draft a small sheet.

• Draft Wheelchair Specification sent out by NHS England for comment – who do we comment to? Krys suggests sending comments to Claire Aldiss. We discussed whether to do individual responses, regional responses or one from the Forum. Yvonne has already drafted some comments so agreed to send them to Krys who will add her comments and then she will send round and the rest of us can add to them.

• Can we comment on De Loittes document, this is a final document so there is probably not much point.

Date of next meetings:

20th January 2015 Manchester

29th April 2015Naidex

30th June 2015TBC

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