Change is in the air.
London PCTs are working together in sectors. Our North West London sector includes six Primary Care Trusts – Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster – who will contract as one body with hospitals that provide local NHS acute services. Half of Hillingdon PCT’s budget will be handled by the new Partnership.
The whole NHS is facing smaller incomes in the years ahead. NHS Hillingdon has paid dearly for past financial failures and is determined to meet the new challenges. In the last two years it broke even despite repaying £20 million towards its historic debt and interest, but this came at a cost. Hillingdon is behind other PCTs in investments in new services, including polyclinics. Significant investments in IT and estates are needed to support improvements in productivity to release funds to meet the new financial threats. The PCT continues to struggle to balance its books while repaying £7.7 million per year of its debt – a vital requirement for the last £19 million of debt to be written off in 2011.
Some local GPs have failed to give their patients adequate services and they now risk naming and shaming. Hillingdon was rated “Poor” in the national 2009 GP Patient survey, which looked at availability of GP telephone consultations, patient care by GPs practice nurses and receptionists, waiting times for appointments, cleanliness, and out hours services. In the survey, only one in five Hillingdon practices achieved the national average of 91% for patient satisfaction. Now the PCT is to encourage patients to contact PALS to record shortcomings and to post comments on the NHS Choices website and the PCT’s own website. So, in future, GPs who ignore their patients’ concerns will do so at their peril!
A number of new faces will shortly be joining NHS Hilingdon. Senior staff vacancies were condemned by KPMG in its assessment of how the PCT should move forward. A new Medical Director has already been appointed, to take up post in December, and other posts are being advertised including a new Public Health Director - for the first time a joint appointment with Hillingdon Borough - also a new Communications Director and several other senior posts. These appointments will ease pressure on existing staff, who have struggled to cover vacancies for far too long. Being cynical, but possibly realistic, unpaid salaries have helped the PCT's finances, but the cost has been high.
So, as we approach a New Year and the start of a new decade, change is in the air.
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