In the next two years there will be changes to dental services in the county.

NHS Northamptonshire wants your views to help ensure that you can get dental care when and where you want it.

The planned changes are: 

• to decommission the three dental access centres in Corby, Daventry and Northampton, then re-provide a seven days a week 8am to 8pm service in those towns and a further service in Wellingborough. 
• to withdraw the out of hours service, which is currently only available in Northampton and re-invest the out of hours funding into the 8 to 8 centres. 
• to provide educational sessions in schools across the county. Currently this is only happening in Northampton and Corby.
• to roll out a service for care home residents to access dentists in their own homes
• to invest in a new practice at the new Cottage Hospital development in Brackley.

Please fill out the NHS questionnaire to express your views on the plans. This should be e-mailed to dental@northants.nhs.uk by February 19th. A postal address is also available on the form.

NHS Northamptonshire wants to develop the way it delivers diabetic retinopathy screening across the county and is looking for your views.

There are 27,000 patients with diabetes in Northamptonshire and the NHS wants to ensure it provides a flexible, good quality service. You can give your views in two ways:

• Take part in the diabetic retinopathy screening in Northamptonshire engagement survey
• Attend a workshop to share your views on Saturday January 23rd at 12.30pm at The Abbey Conference Hall in Market Square, Daventry.

If you would like to attend, please contact Michelle Tansley on 01604 651745 or e-mail consultations@northants.nhs.uk.

NHS Northamptonshire is looking to replace its existing race, disability and gender schemes with a single equality scheme and it would like your thoughts.

The NHS wants to put the patient and public at the heart of organisational planning and would therefore like to hear your views on a range of issues associated with eliminating inequalities in relation to race, disability and gender.

To do this, they are holding an event on Thursday January 21st, 2010 at the Sunley Management Centre at the University of Northampton (Park Campus, NN2 7AL) either from 10am to 1pm or from 6.30pm to 8.30pm (both with light buffets).  

If you would like to register please call Rebecca Schwarz on 01604 651713 or rebecca.schwarz@northants.nhs.uk. 

Northamptonshire County Council will be holding older people's forums across the county.

These sessions for people who feel strongly about issues and who want to know more about local services are free and will include information, guest speakers, Mr 'Garfield' Motivator and an opportunity for people to have their say.

The forums will take place between 2pm and 4pm at the following venues:

Tithe Barn, Wellingborough - January 13th

Corn Market Hall, Kettering - January 19th

Full Gospel Church, Rushden - January 20th

West Glebe Pavilion, Corby - January 27th

Queen Victoria Hall, Oundle - February 2nd

For more information about the forums, please contact NHS Northamptonshire on 01604 651745 or e-mail communications@northants.nhs.uk

Kettering General Hospital has removed its swine flu visiting restrictions as numbers of cases of the illness continue to fall across the county and the country.

This means that ward visiting times – which vary according to individual wards – will revert to normal. However the hospital is still asking anyone who feels unwell – particularly with coughs, colds, sore throats, flu-like symptoms or diarrhoea - not to visit friends or relatives who are patients in hospital.

This session has been designed to be informal and interactive. It will support staff and volunteers working with vulnerable adults. By the end of the session participants will have:

• An understanding of who is a vulnerable adult

• Identified what is meant by abuse

• Defined the different types of abuse and abusers

• Explored how to spot signs of abuse

• Identified how to report abuse

The sessions will be held on

Thursday 14^th January from 9am to 1pm

Tuesday 16^th February from 12.30pm to 4.30pm

Wednesday 17^th March from 9am to 1pm

To book telephone 01604 585459 quoting reference D475

Disability awareness training

The Doddridge Centre will be providing a number of informal and interactive disability awareness training sessions. By the end of the session participants will have an understanding of:

• What is a disability?

• Facts and figures

• Overcoming barriers

• Medical and social model of disability

• Disability Discrimination Act

• Myths and facts

The sessions will take place on:

Tuesday 19th January from 1.30pm to 4.30pm

Monday 8th February from 10am to 1pm

Wednesday 24th March from 1pm to 4pm

To book telephone 01604 585459 and quote reference D475.

Kettering General Hospital has introduced a badge scheme for carers who are staying with a patient outside of normal visiting hours to assist in their care.

The badge enables other KGH staff to recognise that the person has received special permission to stay and support their relative or friend outside of normal visiting hours.

The scheme was inspired by tge experience of a patient who needed end of life care at KGH. A relative of the patient suggested the idea which is now up and running at the hospital.

Kettering General Hospital's Choose Well campaign is taking place to highlight how to use the accident and emergency deparment wisely.

Each day more than 200 patients go through the hospital's emergency department which equates to 76,000 people a year. A proportion of those patients do not require hospital admission.

The campaign will highlight appropriate use of A and E such as:

• cuts which won't stop bleeding or may need stitches
• burns which are large, or deep, and need dressings.
• limb injuries which are painful or swollen and could be caused by a broken bone
• serious medical problems (chest pain,collapse, heavy blood loss)

The hospital recommends using the NHS direct phone line 0845 4647 to help reach the right decision.

A programme which gives staff the freedom to improve and personalise care at Kettering General Hospital (KGH) is helping to enhance the patient experience.

For the last four months the hospital has been actively measuring patient experience on its wards through questionnaires as part of an overall improvement programme called Improving Healthcare Together (IHT).

The results for July to October show that perceptions of care have improved by up to 24 per cent in key categories such as "were you treated well, with kindness and respect."

• Practical improvements made as a direct result of the programme include:
• Ashton ward: changed shift patterns so patients get an early morning cup of tea
• Lamport and Twywell wards: protected meal times on so staff focus solely on meal time activities Naseby ward: improved ward information booklets 
• Althorp ward: providing an answering machine to act as a suggestion box for patients and carers
• Barnwell B ward: setting up a noticeboard for patients and redesigning storage areas to create more space.
• Harrowden A: introducing one-hour consultation clinics for carers to ask staff detailed questions about the treatment of a loved one.
• Deene A: triangular signs to show people where the toilets are

The trust based the programme on market research done in 2008 on what KGH patients, visitors, staff and stakeholders wanted.