Report on South Glos LDPB Meeting – 21st January 2015 – Diana Elliott
Cllr. John Ashe is the new chair for the LDPB, co-chairing with Leigh Campbell.
Naomi Taviner is taking over from Sue Kerswell as the administrator for the group.
Health was the topic for the meeting.
Report from the Service Users:
 Feel they have to wait too long for an appointment with their GP, and making an
appointment is too difficult.
 Need better explanations of why they need to take medication or have an
operation.
 Can be embarrassed to go to their GP about certain things.
 Would like the option of the GP coming to their home instead of needing to go to
the surgery.
 Can find it harder to know when they are not well so need more support on
keeping an eye on their well-being.
 Not everyone knows about the Annual Health checks – which they are all entitled
to.
Feedback from Carers Reps:
 More awareness needed at GPs of Health Checks – variation of knowledge at
different surgeries.
 Good preparation before appointments is useful.
 Useful to have a specific contact at the surgery, who knows the person and their
carer.
 Can be difficult to get through on the phone to surgery – often not possible to go
in person.
 More understanding needed of potential issues when having cancer screenings.
 LD Liaison nurses are good, but only available daytime on weekdays – can this
be extended to evening and weekend?
 Dental services very varied, reasonable adjustments not always made. Mobile
service?
 Pleased that the Royal College of GPs is making autism a clinical priority.
The Self Assessment report was presented for approval. It was felt that the Dept.
of Health did not allow enough time for completion and the format was inaccessible
so it was hard for all the group to check the information - trust had to be given to
those completing it. A letter should go with the form expressing these views.
Presentation from Kate Archibald on the Confidential Inquiry into Premature
Mortality of people with Learning Difficulties:
Review on what is happening nationality compared with what doing locally. CQC
inspecting all GP practices in South Glos – including checking level of understanding
of the Mental Capacity Act.
Report on the Annual Health Checks by Emily Denham and Nick Wood.
The checks are done by GP practices. Support given by CLDT (Community
Learning Difficulty Team) on information etc. GPs don’t have to do them, but
believed all do – a fee is paid for each check done. Comments are mostly good.
Evidence that there are useful outcomes from the checks – lead to changes in
medication and referrals to other primary care services.
Report on the Sirona Care & Health – CLDT update, by Emily Denham
Changes in the service – there is now one team, but based in two places, Thornbury
and Kingswood.
There will be one point of access, with one phone number and one postal address.
The computer system is being changed to the same as that used by GPs. With
patient’s permission records can be shared. So should be able to provide better
data for reports. Hopefully more mobile working.
Modernising the Behaviour PATH: used to be reactionary responding to a crisis but
now will offer a highly skilled, multidisciplinary, cohesive and timely response to
people’s needs. Enhanced training across the teams, with better skill mix.
Report on the Healthcare Project for People with Learning Difficulties by Mik
Alban, project coordinator for Care and Support West.
Working closely with Sirona, to give support and information for people with LD in
Residential Care Services. Based on Mencap’s ‘Death by Indifference’ report and
the Confidential Inquiry into premature deaths of people with Learning Disabilities,
which found that people with LD didn’t get the same level of healthcare as other
people.
The aim of the project is to:
 Ensure service users have: a Health Action Plan in an agreed format, Annual
Health checks, access to accessible information, and help from the right
healthcare professionals.
 That services and staff teams receive training around: people make health
lifestyle choices, understanding different syndromes and conditions, knowing
when people are unwell and what to do, helping people access the right services
and get the right professional support.
 Involve people with LD in training staff and evaluating the project, and involve
relevant healthcare professionals in training providers and their staff teams.
The next meeting of the LDPB will discuss the applications for the Learning
Difficulty Development Fund. This will be on Monday 16th March, postponed from
11th February to allow more time for applicants to prepare. The following meeting,
discussing Employment, is on 13th May.
Full details of the Agenda and Presentations for January and Minutes from the
previous meeting in October can be found on the following link:
http://council.southglos.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CId=187&Year=2015