PCT’s Joint Press Statement

Ref: serious case review/july2010

Press Statement
Embargoed until 11am 27th July 2010

Joint health Statement on behalf of Heart of Birmingham Teaching PCT,NHS South Birmingham, Birmingham East and North PCT and Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust:

“We have fully taken on board the findings of the serious case review and have made good progress at implementing the recommendations made by the report. We are working both at an individual PCT level and as a joint NHS service across the city to ensure that we have a clear action plan, including strengthening our safeguarding processes even further where vulnerable children are taken away from routine contact with health services.

“We are committed to ensuring that cases like this do not arise again in our city and have already implemented a number of improvements to the reporting procedures for safeguarding children. We are working closely with other agencies including GPs and Social Services to continuously review and improve policies. We will continue to learn lessons from this case and as with all serious case reviews, these recommendations will be used to inform and strengthen our safeguarding practices.”
-ends
Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust
Heart of Birmingham serves the health needs of over 300,000 people living in the HoBTPCT patch, which covers some of the city’s poorest neighbourhoods as well as the wealthier shopping and business districts in the centre of Birmingham. The areas we cover include: Oscott, Perry Barr, Handsworth Wood, Lozells, Soho, Aston, Nechells, Ladywood, Sparkbrook and Springfield. 70% of the demographics are ethnic minority and, as a PCT, we pride ourselves on being as diverse as the population we serve.

We buy and manage healthcare services from doctors and dentists, urgent and emergency care as well as specialist services like mental health, sexual health and prison healthcare. The PCT also hosts a number of city-wide partnerships such as the Drug Action Team, Teenage Pregnancy and Birmingham’s Public Health Network.

The trust’s website can be accessed at www.hobtpct.nhs.uk
NHS Birmingham East and North
NHS Birmingham East and North is one of 153 Primary Care Trusts within the English NHS. As a PCT it is responsible for the wise investment of public money to ensure health improvement, access to health services and where appropriate the provision of health services to a local population of some 438,000 people, across 17 wards across north and east Birmingham.

In summary we organise and fund the delivery of health care with the involvement of local people, maximising health outcomes for every pound spent – this is often referred to as commissioning.

The trust’s website can be accessed at www.benpct.nhs.uk
NHS South Birmingham
NHS South Birmingham commissions services for a population of 383,000 people. Currently our Primary Care Services include 65 GP practices, 170 General Dental Practitioners, 71 community Pharmacists, and 80 Opticians premises. Our £559 million budget for 2008/09 has been spent on securing health services for the local population.

NHS South Birmingham contracts services from local hospitals. This includes University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham Women’s Hospital, Birmingham children’s Hospital, Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

NHS South Birmingham also contracts a range of services from community nursing, children’s services, learning disability services and community hospitals. We also provide services through South Birmingham Community Health.

The trust’s website can be accessed at www.sbpct.nhs.uk
Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust is the successor to the Trust involved with this case, which was North Birmingham Mental Health trust.

The trust was created on April 1, 2003 by the merger of the former Northern and South Birmingham Mental Health NHS Trusts (which included mental health services for Solihull), and it achieved foundation trust status in July 2008.

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust provides a comprehensive mental healthcare service for residents of Birmingham and Solihull, and to communities in the West Midlands and beyond.

It has an income of over £215 million and a 4,000-strong workforce, making BSMHFT one of the largest and most complex mental health NHS trusts in the UK.
CONTINGENCY PRESS STATEMENT
Ref: serious case review/july2010

“Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust fully accepts the findings of the serious case review. Immediately after the tragic death of this child, we
reviewed our own internal processes to ensure all lessons would be learned in our organisation. Over the last two years within our local health service we
have strengthened policies and processes even further.”

“For example, we have used the findings to work with clinicians and partners to ensure that in cases such as this, where vulnerable children are taken away from contact with our universal services, we can follow this up and work with parents and other professionals to ensure children receive the health services they need. Doctors often come into contact with families and children and we have undertaken a number of activities to refresh safeguarding issues with healthcare professionals.

“We have implemented a revised parental consent process for the important health checks offered to all children starting school to make the consent process more stringent. We have also strengthened the procedures around missed or failed appointments to capture those who continually fail to keep appointments and are continually working with GPs to ensure they are aware of the latest recommendations on safeguarding children.

“We have incorporated the recommendations into our audit tools to ensure we continue to examine the effectiveness of policies and clinical developments introduced since this case. These tools will be used to monitor our progress.

“We are committed to continuously learning from these tragic cases .They inform and shape all our future responses to children and families and as services are redesigned we will continue to ensure that these themes are embedded into our core business.”

Ends:

Editor’s Notes:

Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust
Heart of Birmingham serves the health needs of over 300,000 people living in the HoBTPCT patch, which covers some of the city’s poorest neighbourhoods as well as the wealthier shopping and business districts in the centre of Birmingham. The areas we cover include: Oscott, Perry Barr, Handsworth Wood, Lozells, Soho, Aston, Nechells, Ladywood, Sparkbrook and Springfield. 70% of the demographics are ethnic minority and, as a PCT, we pride ourselves on being as diverse as the population we serve.

We buy and manage healthcare services from doctors and dentists, urgent and emergency care as well as specialist services like mental health, sexual health and prison healthcare. The PCT also hosts a number of city-wide partnerships such as the Drug Action Team, Teenage Pregnancy and Birmingham’s Public Health Network.

The trust’s website can be accessed at www.hobtpct.nhs.uk

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