Category: Health

Summary of information and resources as at 16 September 2021

This document has been produced by NHS England (London) and provides a summary of information published by the national health, care and education bodies as at 16 September 2021. It is intended for use by the NHS, Local Authorities, elected representatives, schools and the public.

This autumn, all children aged 12 to 15 years are being offered the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccination, following advice from the UK’s four Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) to the Government.
Very few healthy children and young people with Covid-19 go on to have severe disease, but offering vaccination to 12 to 15 year olds should help to reduce the risk of complications, reduce time out of education, and reduce the spread of Covid-19 within schools.
Children will be offered the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is the vaccine approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for children and young people over 12 years of age. This follows a thorough review of the safety, quality and effectiveness of the vaccine in this age group.
The NHS is now preparing to deliver a vaccination programme in schools, similar to the way that other school-aged vaccinations such as HPV and flu are managed. Most areas will start to send invitations for Covid-19 vaccination from 20 September 2021 and school vaccination teams will start vaccinating soon after that. Consent will be sought from parents, guardians and carers before vaccination starts. Alternative arrangements will be made for children who are home schooled, in secure services or specialist mental health settings.
At present, one dose of the vaccine will be offered to most children in this age group, and the timing of a second dose will be confirmed later. Children in this age group who are clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV), or live with someone who is immunosuppressed, will be offered two doses and will be contacted by their GP to arrange this.

Links to information for healthcare workers, schools, parents, carers and young people

COVID-19 vaccination information on NHS.UK  General information for the public on the Covid-19 vaccination, including how to get the vaccination, eligibility, side effects and safety.

Children’s Covid-19 vaccination leaflets   Including the ‘What to expect after your Covid-19 vaccination’ leaflet for children aged 12+.

Easy-read children’s Covid-19 vaccination leaflet   Easy-read guides providing information on Covid-19 vaccination.

Information and FAQs for schools, parents, guardians, carers and young people on 12-15 vaccination  Including frequently asked questions about issues such as consent and side effects.

Review of the safety, quality and effectiveness of the vaccine in 12 to 15 year olds  Information from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on how the vaccine was authorised.

Detailed information about consent for young people, including Gillick competence  The ‘Green Book’ has the latest information on vaccines and vaccination procedures and issues relating to it.

Covid-19 public guidance  National guidance on how to reduce the spread of Covid-19.

The full information pack and FAQs are here: National materials 12-15 vaccination 16 Sept v2

Mount Vernon Cancer Centre has been undergoing a review of services with feedback from patients, carers, staff and local people to modernise patient care and improve its facilities.

Earlier this year, it emerged that Watford had been earmarked as a preferred future site by the programme board. Plans to modernise facilities started after the current site was found to be neglected, short of staff and not fit for purpose in July 2019.  Many of the buildings were found to not be in a good state of repair, and concerns were raised regarding the long-term sustainability of the centre.

In a June 2021 stakeholder update, it was revealed that plans to make significant changes are making progress.  After considering the feedback from the review, there is an agreement that a new single-site specialist cancer centre at Watford General Hospital would be most appropriate.  A plot of land has been provisionally identified at the Watford site, and it is said the cancer centre could be built at the same time as the new Watford General Hospital development.  It would be close enough to the new building to enable a corridor or bridge to link the cancer centre with the hospital – which would make transferring patients easier.

The update suggested the plot could be available from 2023.  With the new location, there could be new therapies space, a brachytherapy theatre and interventional radiology cancer service and other services.  In addition to the new Watford service, there would also be new local access services to other parts of the Mount Vernon catchment area – with both plans estimated to come to £229million.  These additional developments will enable people to be treated closer to where they live, and would be useful to people where Watford is out of reach.  This includes extended services at Hillingdon Hospital and Northwick Park Hospital – and support in other parts including South Hillingdon and Ealing.

It is understood that proposals are expected to be finalised over the summer, with public consultation of the plans taking place in autumn if funding for the development has been agreed.

For more information about the review, visit: www.mvccreview.nhs.uk

The dates of the next introduction and update events for the review are:

Introduction to the review:  Thursday 17th June 2021 at 18.30,  Thursday 1st July 2021 at 18.30

Update to the review:  Friday 18th June 2021 at 13.00,  Tuesday 6th July at 18.30

Are you unhappy with the care and treatment that you, or someone else, is currently
receiving or has received from the NHS?  Do you want to complain and get things put right?  The statutory IHCAS works within the NHS Complaints regulations.  IHCAS Advocates can help you to use this process to raise your concerns.
Independent Health Complaints Advocacy is:
• Free
• Independent
• Confidential

IHCAS can:
• Listen to your concerns
• Signpost you to the right organisations outside of the complaint process if you need these
• Answer any questions about the complaints procedure and explain your options
• Provide a step by step guide to the complaints process and some self help tools
• Provide you with a POhWER advocate, who can help you to make your complaint and support you through the NHS Complaint process
• Support you to make a complaint about care and treatment provided or funded by the NHS
• Support you to make a complaint on someone else’s behalf if they would like you to
• Support you to raise and ask questions following a death
• Support a young person under 16 if they have capacity to reach their own decisions. If a child
does not have the capacity to make a decision about their treatment, only a parent or guardian may complain on behalf of their child without permission.
IHCAS can’t:
• Guarantee that a complaint will be investigated if it is over 12 months old
• Investigate complaints
• Give legal advice
• Give medical advice
• Provide counselling
• Help with issues not covered by NHS complaints regulations, such as privately funded treatment, personnel matters, such as getting staff disciplined or contractual matters
• Help with legal action and matters relating to compensation
• Provide a secretarial service.

We aim to work with everyone, taking account of their needs.  Find out more:  IHCAS Leaflet

Good Thinking supports Londoners to look after their mental health and wellbeing in a way that works for them.

Since its launch in 2017, more than half a million people have used their digital service to tackle anxiety, stress, low mood, sleep problems and other concerns. Good Thinking is free for Londoners thanks to the support of the Mayor of London, London Councils, Directors of Public Health and Public Health England. It is delivered by Healthy London Partnership.

Available 24/7 on any device and completely anonymous, Good Thinking provides a range of resources to help Londoners improve their mental wellbeing, including free NHS-approved apps, articles, blogs, podcasts, self-assessments, videos and workbooks. All the apps they recommend are independently assessed and their clinically-validated self-assessment tool is powered by DoctorLink.

Ruth Boff has provided an update from David Simmonds, MP on the proposals to close the Mount Vernon Cancer Care Centre:

“l recently met with the team at NHS England who are leading on this project and I do understand the issues which are at play. There was previously a clinician led review of the site, and they made a number of recommendations for how the cancer centre needs to be running going forward.

The first of these was a change in admissions policy. The reason for this is that far too many patients were being admitted and then later requiring transfer to another site. This admissions policy has now been changed but it does expose some of the other long term problems.

The second recommendation was that the cancer centre needs to be run but a specialist cancer trust and not a genera/ hospital trust. This is now in the process of taking place and from next year the site will no longer be run by East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust and will transfer to UCLH. This will not affect the on the ground staffing as the clinical team will remain the same, it is just a change of management with better specialism.

The final and most significant change is connected to the first point and that is that the Centre needs to be located an acute site. The reason for this is because as populations are getting older, more patients are also living with other illnesses or conditions which require treatment alongside their cancer treatment. Furthermore, when complications that arise from these therapies, patients require acute clinical opinions from other specialties. This cannot be provided for at Mount Vernon and so hence the need a new site.

The NHS have been open about the options this presents. The first option is a complete move to a new acute site and the second is a majority move with a smaller day centre remaining. This second option is obviously the best case scenario from our point of view and is the option I have now been pushing for. At present this is the preferred option within the NHS.

In terms of the move, the emerging option which looks to be most suitable is to have the centre located at Watford. This centre would be a standalone centre, within its own building and would continue to be run by UCLH. However, it would offer an enhanced service from what it is currently able to offer. Some of the sickest patients are currently having to travel into London for because of the limitations of the existing site and facilities.

I will be honest with the fact that the most affected patients are going to be those living in Hillingdon.  However, given the size of the Mount Vernon catchment area, and that only 14% of their patients are from Hillingdon we need to be realistic about where the most appropriate site might be. The team on this review have done a lot of research on travel times to all of the possible options and that is why Watford is appearing to be the preferred option. Given all this context, I think the most effective thing to do is to ensure we retain the day centre as has been discussed.

If the move did go ahead, it would be included as part of the new hospital at Watford. These plans are in their early days but I believe this would include a new multi-storey carpark to aid with both the availability and accessibility of carparking there. I also want to stress that while the majority of the services would move to Watford, it would be self contained in its own centre separate from the main General Hospital. We are also hoping for a small day centre to remain at Mount Vernon as well.

I am continuing to follow this all closely and a full public consultation is due to launch in June this year ahead of a final decision being made in October but this is where my thoughts are currently at. “

Vaccinations are now available to everyone age 50 or over – including at Eastcote Pharmacy in the High Street (and many other locations including Rayners Lane, Wembley, Uxbridge..)

Click here to book your Covid vaccination

If you provide care for a family member or friend who could not cope without your support, join the Hillingdon Carers’ Forum online.  You can see the information here

The vaccine program continues to be rolled out at pace. Everyone in the first four priority groups (aged 70 or over, or clinically extremely vulnerable) should have now been contacted by the NHS and offered a slot for a jab. If you have received a letter and used the NHS link you will be offered a slot at Wembley. This is because it is our nearest mega vaccination centre.

If travelling to Wembley does not work well for you then please call your GP to see where there is space at one of the many smaller local vaccine centres.

For more information please visit: www.Hillingdon.gov.uk/vaccine

Happy New Year to all from the North West London Clinical Commissioning Groups. Welcome to the first issue of our newsletter for 2021.