| November 5 Group Meeting . The U3A's
Area Representative, Beryl
Mellish, kindly gave her support by attending the meeting. Jan
Stubbings, Interim Chief Executive of South Wiltshire Primary
Care
Trust and Frank Harsent, Chief
Executive of Salisbury Health Care Trust
addressed the meeting. |
Among the possible future developments
referred to by Jan were:
doctors' practices to be grouped in one central Salisbury area,
providing easy access, good facilities etc; a walk-in centre where
patients could obtain immediate medical advice without appointment; and
the modernisation of the mental health services. |
| As far as the local hospital is
concerned Frank referred to
the new
building developments which would create new facilities. In the future
there would be more "hands-on" consultants; Accident and Emergency
cases would be dealt with more speedily through new measures being
introduced including changing the referral system; weekend and evening
clinics; greater use of key-hole surgery; and soon there would be
competition for patients from other hospitals. |
Frank also said that next year he would be applying for the hospital to have foundation status. This would mean greater freedom to meet local needs and involve public participation on a vast scale. |
| Group News. Many members have already had an introductory meeting with the Head of Planning at the hospital with regard to participation in planning meetings for the Phase Three new building project. Working meetings are expected to start taking place this month and members involved will be advised about these by the hospital. |
Those who volunteered to participate in other hospital projects will be informed as soon as any news is available - some may have already heard from the hospital contacts involved. |
| MRSA
/ Infect Control Research. Our members were in the forefront of
drawing attention to public concern about this. We had hoped to start
research into this area by now in support of the hospital's Infection
Control Team. However, new government directions and a change in
personnel of the Infection Control
Team has delayed our involvement.
|
A meeting about this has been held
with the Research Support Unit
and
the Patient Advice & Liaison
Service. A further meeting has been
arranged for November 22 when discussions will be held with the Infection Control Team to
see how best we can support them in research
into this area of concern. |
| OUR NEXT MEETING - A NOTE FOR YOUR 2005 DIARY | Our next meeting will be at Harnham
Memorial Hall at 2.0 p.m. on
Friday, February 18th. (Tea and biscuits will be served at the start of
the meeting.) |
| This meeting will be very much a
"working meeting" with members
reporting back on any developments with regard to their involvement in
hospital projects. |
We shall also have a speaker - Sally Tomlin, the hospital's Chief Pharmacist, who will talk about her department and is seeking input from members of our Group concerning the working of the pharmacy. Sally will bring along a video that she is considering showing to waiting patients and about which she wants our advice concerning its suitability etc. |
| It would be useful if Group members could conduct some individual research by asking anyone they know who has used the hospital's pharmacy what improvements might be made - and then put them to Sally at the meeting. | If any U3A members would like to join this Group please contact Eric Gould on 01722 339868 |
