The Pulse September / October 2009 - NHS Lanarkshire

8
thePulse GENERAL NEWS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009
KEN WELCOMES
ANOTHER TERM
KEN Corsar has been reappointed
as NHS Lanarkshire’s chairman
for a further four years.
The announcement was made by
Nicola Sturgeon in August, when she
also announced the reappointment
of the chairs for NHS Ayrshire and
Arran, NHS Grampian and
NHS Orkney.
Ms Sturgeon, the Cabinet
Secretary for Health and Wellbeing,
said: “I am very pleased to announce
these re-appointments.
“All of the chairs concerned are
extremely committed to public
service and have demonstrated a
clear understanding of the issues
being faced within NHSScotland.
“Their wealth of experience and
knowledge have been invaluable to
their boards and I look forward to
continuing to work together with
them in improving the health of the
people of Scotland.”
Ken is looking forward to
continuing to help NHS Lanarkshire
provide first-class patient care.
He said: “I am delighted to have
been reappointed. Over the past
four years, the health board has
made remarkable progress in
improving patient care, improving
and increasing the services offered
in the community, reducing the
health inequality gap and cutting
waiting times.
“There will be many more
challenges to face in the next four
years. However, I am confident that
with NHS Lanarkshire’s dedicated
and motivated staff, along with our
local authority partners, we will
continue to improve the health of the
people in Lanarkshire.”
Ken joined the Lanarkshire
NHS Board as a non-executive
member in 2003 and became
chairman in 2005.
A graduate of St Andrews
University and Glasgow University,
he taught in several secondary
schools. Ken joined the education
directorate of Strathclyde Regional
Council in 1975 and was apponted
as director of education for Glasgow
City Council in 1995 where he
worked until 2002.
Ken Corsar: “Delighted”
In brief…
Equality
programme
A NEW equality programme to
improve the way NHS Lanarkshire
handles discrimination in
healthcare is being developed.
The new Single Equality
Scheme (SES) will mean moving
from the three existing equality
schemes – Disability, Gender and
Race – by December 2009.
While the SES will continue to
cover disability, gender and race,
it will also include age, gender
reassignment, marriage or civil
partnership, religion or belief,
pregnancy and maternity, and
sexual orientation.
Hina Sheikh, equality and
diversity officer, said: “To inform
the SES, NHS Lanarkshire will be
carrying out stakeholders’
engagement exercises in
September with staff and service
users. We want to know what else
should be included in a scheme to
make sure we are treating
everyone fairly, and we also want
to know if people have suffered
any discrimination, whether as a
patient or as a member of staff.”
Staff will receive a leaflet
explaining the scheme with their
August payslips and are asked to
return the questionnaire by the
end of September.
Patients, visitors and carers are
also being asked to complete a
similar questionnaire. Staff will
be provided with a supply of
leaflets for public distribution.
Completed forms need to be put
in the self-addressed envelope
and returned through internal
post. Clear instruction and
guidance for staff will be included
in all packs sent out.
MRSA screening
HR team
signs up
for new
deal to
improve
service
NHS Lanarkshire’s Human
Resource service has recently
been involved in a number of
new developments.
The service, which is led by
John White, head of resourcing,
delivers employee services
including recruitment, HR,
administration, job evaluation,
workforce planning and
the management of the HR
system Empower.
The HR resourcing team has
signed up to full participation in
a Local Employment Partnership
with JobCentre Plus.
John said: “Local Employment
Partnerships aim to tackle the
increasing recruitment and skills
challenges of the labour market
and economy.
“Thousands of employers across
the country have signed up to
these partnerships to open
up employment and training
opportunities to disadvantaged
jobseekers and realise the
untapped potential of those whose
ability is often overlooked.”
The primary objectives of this
agreement are:
q To offer work trials
q To offer opportunities for New
Deal participants
q Develop pre-employment skills
training programmes
q Providing opportunities to
existing employees to mentor
people who wish to return to work
q Participating in new ways to
assist people back into work.
The resourcing team have also
introduced a 24-hour recruitment
line. By calling 01698 377740 (the
NEW DEVELOPMENTS:
the HR team is all set to
take up the challenge
internal number is 733 7740),
callers will be provided with
four options:
q Request an application pack for
a specific vacancy
q Request to join the staff bank
q Request a call back for a
general employment enquiry
q Request to speak to a member
of the recruitment team.
John added: “The introduction of
the hotline and email address
offers a wider range of application
routes, encourages online
recruitment and enables enquiries
to be handled more effectively.”
A recruitment email account –
recruitment@lanarkshire.
scot.nhs.uk – is also available to request
the same details electronically.
NON-EMERGENCY admissions to
Lanarkshire’s acute hospitals will
be screened for MRSA from
November.
This will be followed by
screening from January 2010 of
the following emergency
admissions: care of elderly, renal,
vascular surgery and
dermatology.
It is part of a national
screening programme, which all
NHS boards will be participating
in, to reduce the risk of patients
contracting MRSA.
A small percentage of patients
who are admitted to hospital
have the MRSA bacterium on
their skin or in their nose already,
even though they may feel well.
The MRSA bacterium is more
likely to cause an infection in
people who are unwell, so it is
important to identify patients in
hospital who are carrying it
before it can infect them or
spread to other patients.
The screening process involves
a simple nasal swab as part of
the pre-admission procedures.
For patients carrying MRSA,
decolonisation involves an
antibiotic ointment in the nose
and anti-bacterial body wash
before they are admitted
to hospital.