An ambitious and wide-ranging £5m+ investment programme has been given the go-ahead by the board of Great Yarmouth and Waveney Primary Care Trust (PCT).
Speaking after the meeting at the PCT’s headquarters in Beccles, Mike Stonard, Chief Executive, said the additional spending during the current financial year (2008/09) would help the organisation to work towards its target of local people having the fastest-improving health in England.
It has been made possible by the PCT paying off all of the historic debt it inherited when it was established in October 2006, leaving it in position to make a major investment towards improving the health of the population.
Among the schemes agreed by board members are a £1.75m contribution towards the £3.5m cost of creating a 22-bed ward at James Paget Hospital to combat infections like MRSA and Clostridium difficile, an additional £1.145m investment on increasing access to NHS dentistry and £167,677 on promoting touchscreen services at all 26 GP practices in Great Yarmouth and Waveney.
Mr Stonard said: “What is particularly gratifying about this extra investment is that it has been influenced by members of the public who told us the sort of services they wanted during our A healthier future consultation last year.
“This additional spending also fits in with the vision for the NHS that the health minister Lord Darzi set out in July and on which NHS East of England has recently completed its own consultation.
“Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCT has taken enormous strides forward since we were set up less than two years ago and we are totally focused on making investments that will us to achieve our stated aim of local people having ‘the fastest-improving help in England’.”
Details of some of the investments agreed are given below:
Infection control ward at James Paget Hospital. Work is due to start shortly and is scheduled to be completed by February next year (2009). The state-of-the-art facility will include isolation rooms fully equipped with en suite facilities and designed to the latest Department of Health technical standards. The ward will also be used during any outbreak of pandemic flu.
Improvements to the PCT’s community hospitals. The PCT manages Beccles Hospital; Patrick Stead Hospital, Halesworth; Southwold Hospital and the GP unit in the Herbert Matthes [checked] Block at Northgate Hospital, Great Yarmouth, and will spend £340,000 on improvements before the end of the current financial year. This will include refurbishing the outpatients departments at Beccles Hospital and Southwold Hospital, replacing the telephone and nurse call systems at Patrick Stead Hospital, and replacing the flooring in the ward at Northgate Hospital.
Expanding NHS dental provision. The PCT is already one of the best-performing in England in terms of people being able to access an NHS dentist but is looking to invest in further extra capacity, particularly in areas where access is more of an issue, such as Southwold, Halesworth and Bungay.
Touchscreen services in all GP practices. The PCT will pay for touchscreen technology at all GP practices so that patients can book themselves in on arrival and also learn health promotion information via a TV screen.
Providing angioplasty more locally. The PCT has agreed to spend £404,000 this year so that patients from Great Yarmouth and Waveney can have angioplasty at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital rather than having to travel to Papworth Hospital.
Improved access to psychological therapies. The PCT will invest £330,000 on introducing psychological therapy in primary care in line with NICE guidance on treating depression and anxiety.
Stroke. The PCT agreed to invest an additional £291,000 this year on improving stroke services for patients at James Paget Hospital.
