January/February 2004

North Bristol NHS Trust plunged £45 million into the red last year and the managers were originally predicting a further overdraft of £47 million at the end of this year. However, an emergency payment of £32 million from the NHS bank is combined with in-house savings of £15 million –achieved in large part by cutting back on agency nurses. They are now expecting an overdraft of just £1.8 million.

Next year the Trust says that it will need a further £27 million from the NHS bank and the year after that will ask for at least £10 million. Only once the Trust has been in the black for a year without any external help will the £45 million from last year’s overspend begin to be paid back. The sum will be reimbursed to the NHS bank which is designed to help health services out of dire financial problems.

The Trust’s Finance Director said that the main saving from this year has been on agency nursing. Previously we were spending about one million pounds a month but we are now spending £300,000 a month "which is a considerable drop!"

The Government has announced that NHS hospitals are to be paid set prices for operations. The tariff scheme, is said to be introduced between 2006 and 2008. At the moment, NHS Trusts set their own rates for surgical procedures. Under the new scheme, a standard price for each operation will be imposed by the Government. Hospitals Trusts which carry out operations for less will be given the difference to improve services. However, those exceeding the tariff will make a loss.

At the moment, North Bristol NHS Trust is one of the most expensive at 27% above the national average. The Finance Director of the Trust stated they are looking at ways in which they can reduce running costs by rationalising the number of sites and reduce duplication of services.

A state of the art body scanner is now in action for the first time at Weston General Hospital. Weston Area Health Trust has obtained the use of a mobile magnetic resonance imaging scanner each Friday – for the next 3 months.

From January 2004 those Social Services Departments that fail to arrange community or residential care for patients within 2 days of hospital discharge will face a £100 daily fine. However, a survey by the Health Service General showed that 94% of Social Services Directors disagreed with this policy.

Casualty services at either Southmead or Frenchay hospitals could be shut at night because of the need to save money. "The proposal comes despite promises made by the Trust not to cut any services when managers announced the massive overspend last May".

Members of the public are being asked for their views on plans for a new South Bristol community hospital. Leaflets about the hospitals are being circulated and public meetings are being arranged.

A garden has been established on derelict ground outside ward 107 at Frenchay Hospital. The development has been welcomed by patients and staff and is expected to play an important part in rehabilitation and relaxation.

Eight out of 10 people oppose any move to close Frenchay Hospital, downgrade its Casualty Unit, or any other services – councillors have claimed. Councillor Allan Higgs, Tory spokesman on health said – "It is clear that there is an overwhelming level of support for keeping both Frenchay and Southmead Hospitals open. People do not see how it is possible to close one major hospital and not see a reduction in service".

The Kennedy Report following the Bristol Heart Babies Enquiry recommended that England and Wales should have 8 major children’s heart centres instead of the existing 12. However this proposal has been rejected by ministers.

Hospitals are to be given "performance bonuses" of up to £500 million for hitting NHS targets. Those hitting targets to reduce waits for casualty treatment or boost their 24 hour emergency service for psychiatric patients in crisis will be allowed to spend the "windfall" on whatever they like.

The Commission for Architecture and Built Environment (CABE) and the Royal College of Nursing joined forces to launch the Healthy Hospitals Campaign last year. Four designs, by top architects, were featured. More than 700 people voted on the Internet with 53% choosing the winning design by Jane Darbyshire and David Kendall. The design includes a circular wall with beds looking out on to a lush green landscape. It focuses on space and light – 2 factors favoured by more than half of the voters. CABE said that 83% of voters had reported negative experiences of hospital environments. The Director of the winning project said – "We wanted to show how elements such as natural light and colour, privacy, materials, the relationship to nature and a view all contribute to a calm supportive environment in a hospital. "The most exciting thing is that this is neither rocket science nor the latest design fad. It is a straightforward tangable issue that skilful design can imbed in a project". At the moment 23 hospitals are being built across England at a cost of £1.6 million with 15 more to be announced this year. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to ensure that new hospital are designed to "world-class standards".(Bristol please note! Ed.).

The controversial system of star-ratings to assess hospital performance is to be abolished. A consultation paper recommends abandoning all 62 key targets. In the future –the Commission for Health Care Audit and Inspection will take responsibility of assessing NHS performance. The changes mean that there will have to be new measures to decide which hospitals are good enough to achieve foundation status.

In January 2004 Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the explorer, returned to the BRI and officially opened a new £10 million cardiac intensive care unit and operating theatre suite. Sir Ranulph had been taken to the BRI last year following a heart attack at Bristol Airport.

Both acute NHS Trusts in Bristol have failed to meet a deadline on implementing a new agreement to give doctors a better deal on pay and hours. However, they are not alone and every NHS Trust in England is in the same position.

The Frenchay After Burns Club, based at Frenchay Hospital, helps young burns victims come to terms with their injuries and also helps them move on with their lives. This year, nurses who help run the FAB Club, want to organise a number of fun-packed activities for the children and they need volunteers to lend a hand. The Charity can be contacted on Bristol 975 3930.

It is thought that the incidence of coeliac disease amongst children has been greatly under-estimated. Fewer than one in 2 ½ thousand children are treated for the disease. However the Bristol Study, led by Dr Polly Bingley indicates that prevalence may be as high as one child in 100. Dr Bingley has analysed blood samples collected from 5 ½ thousand children aged 7 – looking for antibodies which are markers for the disease. It seems that most children have mild, if any, gastro-intestinal symptoms. However the children were shorter and lighter than antibody-negative children matched for date and place of birth. It is already known that 1% of the UK’s adult population has coeliac disease. The findings suggest that the condition starts in childhood even in individuals in whom it is diagnosed late in life.

People living in Bristol and the West may be at less risk of heart disease because of the water that they drink according a report from Finland recently published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Researchers found that for every one unit increase in water hardness, there was a corresponding 1% decrease in the risk of having a heart attack.

A Bristol University graduate, working at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, has been awarded a Grant of £200,000 to study the behaviour of white cells in leukaemia and lymphoma.

Bristol University is teaming up with the Food Standards Agency to investigate the health benefits of dietary supplements. The researchers at the University are looking for 200 volunteers in the Bristol area to take part in the Study. Volunteers will be asked to take either dietary supplements or placebo tablets for a period of 12 weeks.

Families from Bristol have been included in a 2000-strong nationwide compensation claim against the NHS after their dead children’s body parts were removed without consent. The group had rejected an out-of-court settlement that would have amounted to £1000 each. The new multi-million pound claim aims to achieve at least £5000 – the same amount of money granted to each family in a similar case at Alderhey in Liverpool.

Blood donation figures in Bristol are now the highest for 2 years. The National Blood Service (NBS) stated that it particularly wished to thank people who had donated blood over the Christmas holiday period.

The number of people killed on Avon and Somerset roads is at its lowest for 5 years according to new figures. Last year –80 people died in 76 crashes across the region. This was a reversal of a trend which had seen a steady increase in the annual death toll from 83 in 1999 to 106 in 2001.

Patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome in Bristol are set to benefit from a multi-million pound Government handout. The £8.5 million reward is to be split between 12 centres across the UK. It is estimated that in the West there are 19,714 sufferers including 3,285 young people.

There will be a new centre at Frenchay Hospital which will be one of the 12 to be opened across the country. The centre will provide specialist assessment, diagnosis and advice on treating fatigue and improving the knowledge and skills of health sector staff.

An NHS dental facility has been opened in Stoke Bishop. It has a capacity of 6000 people. If the demand is high enough – new surgeries could be opened up at other locations in Bristol. The surgery has been set-up by Dr Mike Frain who studied dentistry in Bristol.

The Internet Company which provided sperm to help lesbians conceive a baby plans to set-up a clinic in Bristol. No details were given.

A Bristol University student is hoping to pay her way in the University whilst studying by auctioning off her virginity on the Internet.

Teenagers living in the most impoverished areas of Bristol have used crisp packets as a form of contraceptive. Dr Peter Greenhouse, from the Milne Centre for Sexual Health in Bristol, said that youngsters admitted to improvising with crisps packets and cling film because they could not afford to buy condoms. Government statistics show that Britain has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Europe and new cases of sexually transmitted infections have doubled in the last 10 years.

Bosses of Southmead Hospital have drawn-up a raft of "failsafe" measures to protect sperm samples. Investigations were launched last summer after frozen sperm samples stored at Southmead were destroyed when one of the freezer storage tanks broke-down.

Dr Michael Dovey, former Keynsham GP, has been struck-off the medical register for downloading pornographic pictures of children.

BABE, the world-famous literary pig created by children’s author Dick King-Smith is to front a £15 million appeal for a new children’s hospice near Bristol.

The number of youngsters receiving MMR have risen for the first time in over a year. The percentage of 2 year olds increased by 0.9% to 79.8%.

Mesothelioma killed about 1,800 people in the UK each year. The condition is triggered by exposure to asbestos. A peak in deaths is not likely to be reached until about 2015 at the earliest.

A television advert which showed lumps of fat dripping out of the end of cigarettes has been one of the most influential of all-time according to the Bristol Heart Foundation. More than 10,000 smokers in the South West have called the organisation’s helpline in the last few weeks. The heart charity said that only one in 5 people were aware of the link between smoking and heart disease prior to the advert.

Lyn Hemmings of North Bristol NHS Trust has recently hosted a special visit of staff from Kazakhstan. This visit included a tour of the facilities at Frenchay Hospital. The idea is to teach a Kazakh staff how to rehabilitate children with cerebral palsy and autism. Two neurologists and a speech therapist are also involved.

Help for people about to go into privately funded residential care or who are paying fees for all or part of their care, is contained in a new free guide – "Fair Terms for Care published by the Office of Fair Trading".

A Bristol-based cycling charity will be holding special courses for children during February half-term in a bid to help improve their road sense. Life Cycle UK will be running the sessions in Easton for 8-11 year olds to help youngsters to become safer cyclists and learn better road sense.

Astra Zeneca is a major drug company based near Avonmouth. It employs about 400 people and had sales of £10.34 billion in 2003. New products include an anti-cholesterol treatment, Crestol, whose active ingredient is produced at the Avonmouth plant. Other recent launches have included drugs for stomach ulcer and another for the treatment of schizophrenia.

A new team of health and social service staff has been set-up in South Gloucestershire to provide care for the elderly in their own homes. It aims to prevent people being admitted to hospital or care homes when they can still live at home. The team aim to provide a seamless service which provides all kinds of rehabilitation and support for people coming out of hospital or needing intensive support at home instead of going into hospital.

Plans to cut day centre services in Bristol will be set in motion. Under the plans, Snowdon Road and the Resource and Activity Centre in Fishponds which provides support for people with learning difficulties could close. Day centre services to the elderly and disabled at Lockleaze and Bristol 600 will also be cut so that only those with the most acute problems continue to receive care. The City Council says this means that many people with no longer qualify for free day centre care. Centres in Romney Avenue and Langhill Avenue currently provide day-care support for 273 and 183 people respectively. Under the plans these services would also be cut-back so that only those with critical or substantial needs would continue to receive care. (There have subsequently been a number of letters and articles on this topic and it is clear there is much resistance/resentment regarding the plans – Ed.)

RL-H