Primary care latest updates

For the attention of all practice staff who use the Pathology Service at Kettering General Hospital:

Are you involved with requesting pathology tests or receiving pathology reports?  If so – please could you spare 5 minutes or less to complete this short survey to help us improve our service to you and your patients? 

Last year the team only received one respnse. It is important for the continued laboratory accreditation to seek and obtain feedback from users, to show that the team are providing a suitable service for patients.

All those who leave their contact details will be entered into a prize draw to win a homemade cake of their choice.

Simply click the link or scan the attached QR code:

Read Kettering General Hospital Pathology Laboratory - GP User Satisfaction Survey 2023…

The Integrated Care Northamptonshire Virtual Wellbeing Festival 2023 was a fantastic success and we would like to thank each and every one of our health and care colleagues for joining us and getting involved.

From Monday 3 to Friday 7 July, thousands of health and care colleagues from across our county visited the Virtual Wellbeing Festival website, dialled in to our inspiring live sessions, joined our superb range of recorded activity sessions and engaged with #VWBF23 on social media.

If you didn’t manage to join in during Festival week, every minute of wellbeing content is available for you to watch back on-demand any time you like!

To see what’s on offer you can enjoy a whistle-stop tour of the full Festival programme in under five minutes by watching our exclusive video highlights reel.

All of this is waiting for you right now at www.wellbeingfestival.live so come on over and check it out. If you see anything you particularly like, don’t forget to share with your colleagues and networks to make sure they don’t miss out.

Every Virtual Wellbeing Festival gives us an opportunity to learn so we’d also be grateful if you could take a few minutes to share your feedback about your own VWBF23 experience. Complete our online feedback form and you’ll be automatically entered into a free prize draw to win some great Virtual Wellbeing Festival goodies!

Thank you once again for being part of the Northamptonshire Virtual Wellbeing Festival.

Read Catch up on the highlights from another successful Virtual Wellbeing Festival…

The national leaders supporting Action for Happiness living in Northamptonshire and supporting our local Northamptonshire Hub work have been developing a resource for young people, ages 12 to 18, to gain an understanding of the Ten Keys to Happier Living and the actions that can be taken to promote happier living individually, with friends and family and within the local community.

They have used a Padlet Board, that acts like a bulletin board, which can be used by young people who have been signposted to it. The Board can be accessed but not edited and they have called it: My Happier Living Action Plan. The format of the plan is ‘columns’ with the first two columns introducing the Plan and the Ten Keys to Happier Living; followed by 10 columns - one for each of the Ten Keys, a column for ‘What to do if you feel very unhappy’ and additional columns with further relevant information.

A key piece of information is that the Ten Keys to Happier Living is a ‘MENU’ not a ‘PRESCRIPTION’ and it is important that this is made clear when using the Happier Living Action Plan.

The team are working towards signposting young people to this resource from a dedicated ‘children and young peoples’ page on the Action for Happiness website. In the meantime, they would like to disseminate the resource locally in Northamptonshire.

Here is the link and QR code for the resource which you can share with any young people and organisations you think would find it useful:

https://padlet.com/actionforhappiness/my-happier-living-action-plan-sw5zsldxbeuos8as

The great news is that the Padlet Board can be accessed on a mobile phone or tablet using the PADLET App.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch by email address at schooltoolkit@actionforhappiness.org. This email address can also be used for any feedback from young people.

We hope you and the young people using it will like the resource and find it helpful.

Read My Happier Living Action Plan for children and young people…

In the past couple of weeks there has been an unusually high number of overdoses (with some deaths) in people who use drugs, primarily heroin, in some parts of the country. There is evidence that the heroin used in some of these cases contains a “nitazene”, one of a group of potent synthetic opioids, most likely isotonitazene or N-pyrrolidino etonitazene (also called etonitazepyne), or perhaps fentanyl (testing is still underway in some cases).

There is good evidence from reports that naloxone, the ‘antidote’ to opioid overdoses, worked in these cases, strengthening the belief that they involve an opioid. The treatment required for an overdose that may be related to a potent synthetic opioid is the same as for other opioid overdoses, but delivering it rapidly and completely is even more critical, as progression to respiratory arrest, and recurrence of respiratory arrest, are more likely.

Those in contact with heroin users should be alert to the increased possibility of overdose arising from ‘heroin’ containing synthetic opioids, be able to recognise possible symptoms of overdose and respond appropriately.

There is no good evidence for absorption of synthetic opioids through the skin but usual precautions, including masks, should be taken when handling unknown substances.

 All organisations where staff may encounter people who use drugs should ensure those staff are:

• Made aware of the risk of severe toxicity resulting from adulteration of heroin with potent synthetic opioids

• Made aware that the potency and toxicity of nitazenes is perhaps similar to, or more than, fentanyl, and much more than heroin

• Alert to the symptoms of opioid overdose in known and suspected opioid/heroin users

• Communicate these risks to people who use opioids/heroin during any contacts but avoid referring to “strong” or “potent” heroin as this may lead them to seek it out

• Ensure people who use opioids/heroin and others who might encounter an opioid overdose have naloxone available

 All organisations that provide emergency care for opioid overdose should ensure staff are supported to:

• Treat suspected cases as for any opioid overdose, using naloxone and appropriate supportive care

• Recognise that appropriate monitoring and further doses of naloxone may be required since the duration of action of naloxone is shorter than that of many opioids

We continue to monitor the situation and seek further confirmation of the substance involved and their likely spread and will update you again if we believe further action is necessary.

In the meantime, please continue to report overdose incidents and test results to your regional OHID team using the appropriate LDIS form and mailbox, and nationally to drug.alerts@dhsc.gov.uk.

Read Local Drug Information System Alert…

We are pleased to introduce the NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board Five-Year Joint Forward Plan.

As an integrated care system of health and care partners, we have a shared vision to work better together to make Northamptonshire a place where people are active, confident and empowered to take responsibility for good health and wellbeing, with quality integrated support and services available for them when they need help.

As part of this NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) is striving to achieve four aims: to improve outcomes in population health and healthcare; to tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience and access; to enhance productivity and value for money; and to help the NHS support broader social and economic development.

Like many areas across the country, we are seeking to do this within a challenging economic and financial context, while we also face significant continuing demand for all our services. We know that through shared working and community involvement, we have the best opportunity to respond to these challenges.

Our ICB Plan links directly with the Northamptonshire Integrated Care Partnership ‘Live Your Best Life’ Strategy, published earlier in 2023, and also with the Health and Wellbeing Board Strategies for North and West Northamptonshire.

The plan explains how we will help deliver many of the ambitions outlined in the ICP Live Your Best Life Strategy, while rising to the challenges the NHS faces across the country.

It is just the start of a process of working together as health, care and public sector organisations, and with the communities we serve, to achieve our shared vision.

The plan is the first publication of a five-year plan which we will review, engage upon and develop on an annual basis throughout that period.

In doing this it is critical that we listen to our county’s communities and ensure their voices are heard as we continue to develop the activity set out in the ICB Plan.

We will engage with a wide range of communities, audiences and stakeholders to co-produce our activity during the ICB Plan period, guided by the principles set out in our ICN Community Engagement Framework 2022-25 [pdf] 519KB. 

This robust plan of engagement will be ongoing to make sure meaningful conversations take place on what matters most to our communities – engaging with our communities and those with lived experience will support us to better understand services and support them.

Alongside this, we will develop action plans to drive delivery and measure our success through agreed outcomes, metrics and key performance indicators. These will be working plans which continue to evolve and are kept under review.

Download the NHS Northamptonshire ICB Five-Year Joint Forward Plan 2023-28[pdf] 8MB

Read ICB Five-Year Joint Forward Plan now published…