TC/1257

Bombing showed 'value of teamwork in delivery of health services'

THE Omagh bombing demonstrated the value of teamwork in the delivery of health services in rural areas, Mr. Hugh Mills, the chief officer of Sperrin Lakeland Health and Social Care Trust, has said:
And, speaking at Thursday lasts' annual meeting of the Trust, which was open to the public, Mr. Mills revealed the Trust had over-performed' in a number of areas, while meeting its 1997/98 financial targets.
A good attendance at the Great Hall at Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital in Omagh, heard the chief officer say reports given at previous meetings, coupled with those due to be given at the second annual meeting of the Trust that night, "reflected the variety of services the Trust was involved in providing."
"While there may be significant differences between our audiology services and our child fostering services, there are times when our family of health and social services staff are closely linked, and benefit from knowing each other's role and expertise," he said. As he picked up on his teamwork theme.
But it was only one of the benefits of a combined hospital and community trust, which, Mr. Mills believed, had been "successful, and appropriate to the delivery of health and social services in a rural area."
"The recent emergency caused by the Omagh bombing certainly demonstrated to me, and to everyone involved, the value of team work, as all the various parts of the Trust came together, assisted by so many others, to respond to the significant and ongoing needs of the Omagh community," he explained.
And, said Mr. Mills, the achievements had come following a year two performance which brought further funding cuts, changes and new challenges.
'Heartened'
However, he went on: "We have been heartened by July's public spending review by the new Government, and its change of policy, which has given a high priority to health and social services. We await the views of the new Assembly, and the trust that local politicians will also move towards endorsing health and social services as a high priority."
The chief officer gave an overview of the key developments of the 12 months to March 1998, including the establishment, following a wide-ranging 1997consultation, of the one hospital on two sites recommendation, which had been endorsed by the Trust Board.
He referred to the £1million expansion at the two sites - the £667,000 upgrade of the renal dialysis unit at Omagh's Tyrone County Hospital, and the provision of a £358,000 CT Scanner at the Erne Hospital in Enniskillen.
Mr. Mills continued "In addition to the Trust fulfilling the work in our hospitals for which we were funded, we over-preformed on this work - 13 per cent more inpatients than planned, and 21 per cent more day cases than planned while outpatients were on target.
"Community nursing, professions allied to medicine, and social workers also played key roles. In the 97/98 year they again exceeded performance targets for which we were funded. Community nursing staff achieved a plus 12 per cent, and professionals allied to medicine almost an extra 3 per cent."
The former meant an additional 32,000 plus contacts," said Mr. Mills, who went on: "To emphasise that acute services provided by the Trust are significant, the level of activity places it as the seventh largest provider of acute hospital services in Northern Ireland."
He disclosed that despite receipt of additional £250,000 to cut waiting lists, lists remained high and further bids for extra monies had been placed in the current financial year. Further funding had also been sought to fully implement the Children Order.
"While some new funding has been provided to appoint additional social workers and other staff, this has proved to be limited," added Mr. Mills
And the Trust had reached crisis point with the demand for available day centre places, which he said, had grown throughout its area.
"We have been challenged to provide new opportunities to meet this requirement. We are also aware of the growing pressures arising from the desire of people with physical disabilities to remain, and be supported, in their own homes," he said.
Mr Mills then turned to Trust funding, and said: "Once again we have been successful in meeting our financial targets. There was a small surplus of £191,000 for the year in a turnover of almost £79m, and our management costs were reduced by £77,000. They are now less than 5 per cent of the turnover."
Concluding the chief officer said the Trust's 3,630-strong work force was committed to continuing to provide a quality service.
"We received 3,628 commendations from service users in the year under review. I don't know who the other member of staff was that did not get one," he quipped.