Agenda and supporting papers - Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust

Item 11
Over the past two years, members of DUG have been supported to promote initiatives such
as Annual Health Assessments (primary care), development of their own Hospital Passports,
consideration of Organ Donation and Staying Healthy campaign. They have also worked
closely with Trust staff to contribute to the following:
• Recruitment of staff to the LD Liaison team.
• Signage across the hospital.
• Secret Shopper feedback.
• Webpage for Learning Disabilities on the Trust’s website.
• Patient mealtimes and menus.
Following discussion with the Trust Chairman and Chief Executive, at recent DUG meeting,
members of DUG will be supported to continue work towards advising on signage and other
aspects of the hospital environment and involved in improving the language and presentation
of patient letters to people with Learning Disabilities.
There are plans to extend the user group to include people with Learning Disabilities from
both Devon and Cornwall local authority areas; also to include DUG in the wider patient/user
feedback planned by the Patient Services team as part of the Patient Experience work.
National Standards for People with Learning Disabilities in Hospital
Progress continues to be made towards the national standards as laid out in the Monitor
framework and Care Quality Commission and is reported in Annex 4. The Trust continues to
provide high quality care to people with Learning Disabilities:
• Reasonable adjustments are made to care plans/care pathways for people with
Learning Disabilities, through the involvement of LD liaison team and
communication with community services.
• Clinical teams which care for people with Learning Disabilities on a regular basis,
have active LD Link nurses. These provide leadership and support to other
colleagues for the particular care needs for individuals and to promote the use of
reasonable adjustments.
• The role and scope of the LD liaison team in supporting people with complex
needs has recently been reviewed and revised. The team provide important
liaison with community services, advice to clinical teams and support to
individuals and their families.
• Discharges are well planned and communicated with community services,
facilitated by the LD liaison team.
• There is regular training and education for staff, to raise awareness of the specific
needs of people with LD and those who are vulnerable adults.
• Support is provided to carers as they work with clinical teams to meet the needs
of patients in hospital. This is particularly relevant to parents of people with LD,
some of whom have their own health and care issues – as they often spend long
periods of time in hospital supporting patients.
• Incidents and complaints involving patients with LD are flagged, to allow the
involvement of the LD liaison nurses in the investigation and resolution of
complaints/incidents.
• The Meridian ‘Essence of Care’ audit system is used to review/audit to standards
of care for patients identified with LD.