Premier approval for patient lifeline
Date published: 10 September 2009
WELL done . . . the letter of congratulations from Prime Minister Gordon Brown
PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has sent a seal of approval to a flagship Oldham service for the care it gives to patients. Thousands of people benefit from the help offered by the Pennine MSK Partnership, which offers specialist rheumatology, orthopaedic and chronic pain-relief services to Oldhamers and has been held up as a beacon for the way NHS services should be run across the country. Reporter Marina Berry spoke to some of the people who run it — and to some of the patients.
A TEAM of 50-plus specialists, ranging from consultants, surgeons and anaesthetists to physiotherapists, occupational therapists and specialist nurses have been heralded as a lifeline by many of the people they care for.
Based at Hopwood House, Lees Road, Oldham, Pennine MSK (musculo skeletal) Partnership, has been six years in the making. And news of its success has now spread to Downing Street.
A letter of congratulations from Gordon Brown followed the service achieving a customer service excellence award from the Cabinet office — a first for an Oldham-based NHS organisation.
And to celebrate, its bosses invited a handful of the thousands of people who are referred to the service every year to tell their story.
Dr Alan Nye, chief executive, said: “There is nothing else like our service in England, we are unique in that clinicians own it and run it as a business within the NHS.”
Independent assessor for the award, Bob Mandy, added: “The overwhelming opinion of patients was that the service was vastly superior to what they had experienced in the past.
“All staff interviewed or observed were very patient-focussed and clearly enjoyed their work.
“I was impressed by how incredibly quickly patients are seen when compared with a general hospital and how existing patients can self-refer for an appointment through the website. That may be why attendance for appointments is hugely higher than in a hospital,” said Mr Mandy.
The service has seen a sixfold growth in the number of patients referred for treatment over the past three-and-a-half years to 10,000 new patients a year.
One of those patients is 73-year-old Brenda Iles, of Heywood Avenue, Austerlands.
She has had two knee replacements and an operation on her foot because of arthritis, and explained: “I was referred here by my doctor — it wasn’t something I had heard of before.
“I saw a consultant within a surprisingly short time and I have been very impressed by the whole service. You are treated like a human being and not a number.”
Norma Nutter (63), of Lea View, Royton, has regular injections into her bone for tennis elbow. She said: “I had been suffering for a while and my doctor referred me to what I thought was a hospital.
“I have been coming here for 18 months, and I can refer myself instead of going through my doctor. It’s brilliant — within two or three weeks of making a phone call I am back having another injection.”
Another patient, Beryl Wild (79), of North Gate, Garden Suburb, has also been a patient for 18 months, referred by her doctor for arthritis in her knee.
“I play crown green bowling and it was stopping me being able to play,” she said. “I had a pain-killing injection and it was brilliant.
“The service is excellent, everyone is so kind, very efficient and I have found no problems whatsoever.”
Uppermill resident Margaret Collins (58), of Fernthorpe Avenue, suffered a shoulder injury in a fall while out walking three years ago.
“I used to go to hospital for pain-killing injections, but they weren’t working so I was sent for a scan which showed there was more injury than we thought,” she said.
“I needed an operation and was referred here. I thought I was just coming for an assessment and I was surprised to see both the surgeon and anaesthetist.
“They were brilliant. The anaesthetist spent nearly an hour with me explaining what would happen and taking my history.
“It all happened very quickly, I had the operation within weeks and the care I had both before and after was brilliant. It was as if I had been in a private service and paid for treatment. I couldn’t have expected more,” she said.
Medical director Dr Hugh Sturgess said that while he was pleased Pennine MSK Partnership had gained the customer excellence award, what really mattered were patients’ views.
He said: “The award is just a badge which tells us we are doing a good job, but we can learn so much from patients.
“We know we have to design the service around the people who use it, without their input and feedback we won’t get it right.”
People can only be registered with the service by being referred by an Oldham GP.
Once they are “in the system,” they can self-refer, which means they don’t have to go back to their GP if they need another appointment.
