Advice and guidance, booklets and leaflets, transactions and media releases. A description of the Services offered.

Under this class, NHS North East Essex will provide the following information:

7.1     Clinical services provided and/or commissioned  

NHS North East Essex commissions, with Clinical Commissioning Group colleagues, a wide range of services, for example Mental Health as well as specialist acute services provided within the county and beyond.

NHS North East Essex commissioners directly commission services through a number of acute hospitals. Most activity takes place at Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust (formerly Essex Rivers Healthcare NHS Trust), but patients also have the choice of services commissioned at Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust , Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust , Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust and West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust. For most medical conditions, patients can now choose where and when to have treatment. The 'Choosing your hospital' booklet available from GP surgeries explains the services available in local hospitals and clinics.

NHS North East Essex commissions a range of services in GP practices, community clinics and in patients' homes, from our Community provider ACE (Anglian Community Enterprise). These include district nursing, health visiting, community midwives, specialist nurses, paediatric physiotherapy and occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and chiropody.

List of Commissioned Services

Clinical Services are the responsibility of the following:

Dr. Mike Gogarty,  Director of Strategy and Public Health
NHS North East Essex 
Colchester Primary Care Centre
Turner Road
Colchester                CO4 5JR
Tel: 01206 286814

For Specialist Learning Disability Services, please contact at the link below. http://www.hertspartsft.nhs.uk/about-us/trust-papers/foi/

7.2     Non-clinical services

 The following non-clinical functions performed by NHS North East Essex are covered in the classes indicated below. 

A service level agreement has been drawn up with Colchester Hospital University Foundation Trust CHUFT) to manage the non-clinical service on behalf of NHS North East Essex for the two community hospitals, Clacton & District Hospital and the Fryatt Hospital and Mayflower Medical Centre, Harwich.  If you require help or information about any of these services, please contact:

For CHUFT

Pam Green, Assistant Director, Acute Commissioning

NHS North East Essex 
Colchester Primary Care Centre
Turner Road
Colchester                CO4 5JR

01206 286922

pam.green@northeastessex.nhs.uk

For Clacton and Fryatt Hospitals

Jenni Speller, Head of Community Commissioning

NHS North East Essex 
Colchester Primary Care Centre
Turner Road
Colchester                CO4 5JR

01206 286889

jennifer.speller@northeastessex.nhs.uk

Each of the relevant local councils provide waste disposal. Carillion provides the maintenance service.

NHS North East Essex and Independent Practitioners 

General Practitioners (GPs), dentists and optometrists are all independent practitioners, which means that they enter into contracts with their local Primary Care Trusts to provide services, but are not directly employed by the Primary Care Trusts.

NHS NEE commission the Out of Hours service from Harmoni HS Limited who are responsible for patient access to urgent medical advice and treatment outside GP Surgery hours (which are 08.00 hours - 18.30 hours Monday - Friday) during evenings, weekends and public holidays in the Colchester and Tendring areas.  Harmoni are also commissioned by NHS NEE to provide the GP lead Walk in Centre service at the North Colchester Healthcare Centre, Primary Care Centre in Turner Road, Colchester for a range of minor injuries and illnesses, such as:

* Ear or eye infections and problems
* Minor facial wounds, e.g. swelling 
* Muscle, bone and joint injuries, e.g. sprains
* Neck pain, e.g. minor whiplash
* Removal of simple foreign bodies
* Uncomplicated nose bleeds
* Sore throat, tonsillitis, coughs, colds, flue
* Stomach ache, sickness, diarrhoea
* Superficial cuts, bites, stings, minor burns
* Thrush, Cystitis
* Skin complaints, e.g. rashes

The Centre also provides a Phlebotomy service.
 
The North Colchester Healthcare Centre service also incorporates a new GP surgery, which is open from 07.00 hours - 22.00 hours seven days a week.  The service is for walk in patients and also provides a full GP service for registered patients.  The Out of Hours service can be contacted on 0845 602 5215 and the North Colchester Healthcare Centre on 01206 314015.

You and your family can register with any local GP practice that is accepting patients from your home postcode area.  A full list of local GP practices is available at NHS Choices www.nhs.uk or alternatively telephone Family Health Services on 01255 206277 who will give you information on local GP Surgeries in your area.

Extended Hours

Over two thirds of the GP practices in North East Essex are participating in the extended hours scheme. This means that these practices are providing appointments outside of the core hours of 8am to 6.30pm. Practices determine how these will be offered to best suit the needs of the patients. This may be early mornings, late evening or Saturday morning sessions to ensure that all patient groups, especially those that commute or work full-time, have access to their GP. Please ask your surgery for details.

Dental services are usually provided within normal working hours (Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.30pm). Dentists provide either private or NHS treatment with some practices providing both NHS and private treatment. There is a dental helpline available on 0845 0833 337 weekdays between 8.00am and 6.30pm which can offer advice on NHS dentists in your area, NHS band changes and can arrange emergency NHS appointments. For out of hours (OOH) weekday evenings, weekends and bank holidays then the OOH telephone number is 0845 602 5238.

Optometrists provide NHS sight tests and treatment, if necessary, for those patients who are eligible for NHS treatment. Optometrists can test and provide NHS treatment for children and adults for a number of eye conditions. These services are available during normal working hours and at weekends.

NHS Choices

The Department of Health launched the NHS Choices website, located at www.nhs.uk. The site aims to personalize healthcare and provide information that will ‘allow patients to make meaningful choices about when and where to receive their treatment and boost patients right to choice'.

NHS Choices puts patients in the driving seat by providing access to information so patients can make informed decisions, from advice about healthy eating to identifying the right hospital for their treatment.NHS Choices has been designed by drawing on the combined experience and expertise of NHS.uk, NHS Direct, the National Electronic Library for Health, and the Healthcare Commission. NHS Choices is intended to allow patients to access NHS approved information under six different headings:

-Medical Advice
-Health A-Z
-Live Well
-Carers Direct
-Health News
-Find and Choose Services

Also on NHS Choices

-NHS Direct initial assessment tool
-Map of Medicine: see what your doctor can see
-Medicine Guides: all about your medication
-The pregnancy care planner
-The Information Prescription Service
-Birth to five: your guide to parenting
-Long-term conditions: the support you can get
-The NHS in England
-Access to healthcare abroad
-Patient choice: your right to choose
-Vaccinations
-Local Involvement Networks: get involved
-PROMs: listening to patients to improve care
-Care Quality Commission: your watchdog
-Quality Accounts: how your service performs
 -Help with health costs.

For further information about independent practitioners, please contact:

Helen Sadler
Head of Primary Care Commissioning   
NHS North East Essex

Tel: 01206 286510

7.3  Services for which NHS North East Essex is entitled to recover a fee together with those fees

In certain circumstances, charges may be applicable for requests for information processed in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act.  Details of the organisation's charging policy can be found in the  Publication scheme - Guide to Information - Introduction

Requests for health records are processed on receipt of a standard charge of £10 per request 

7.4 Patient information leaflets and other booklets and newsletters 

The organisation's public newsletters called "Healthy Voice" can be found on the Newsletters page of this website.

7.5 Patient Advice & Liaison Service (PALS)

The PALS staff for Colchester and Clacton are available to assist patients, carers and members of the public in finding information about health services, or to try to resolve any difficulties they may be experiencing with the local NHS. The service is also available to staff as a source of information, and to help in the resolution of problems.

The PALS staff are building contacts with user and carer groups to help people individually and collectively to develop a voice through which their views can be made known. In time, this will help NHS North East Essex to shape its planning and deliver services that are more sensitive to the health needs of the local population.

PALs Contact details:
   
Primary Care Centre

Turner Road
COLCHESTER      CO4 5JR 
Tel: 01206 286939 (with confidential answerphone) or 
       0800 3285620 (with confidential answerphone)

Email: pals@northeastessex.nhs.uk

Clacton / Tendring

Appointments can be made to see a PALS representative in Colchester / Clacton / Tendring by arrangement.

Tel: 01206 286939 (with confidential answerphone) or 
       0800 3285620 (with confidential answerphone)

       (telephone numbers are the same as the Colchester Office)

Email: pals@northeastessex.nhs.uk

PALS leaflet

PALS is required to provide publicity material to inform the public about the service. The Department of Health provided a template for publicity material that covered text and photographs. This, together with input from users, has been adapted and is available from NHS North East Essex.

7.6 Advice and guidance

If you have a question or problem that is clinical or related to your personal health, please contact your GP or the North Colchester Healthcare Centre in the first instance, as we are unable to give personal clinical advice by way of email.  For any other concerns or queries, see our Contact us page. 

7.7 Corporate communications & media releases  

NHS North East Essex has a dedicated 24 hours a day, seven days a week resource for media handling. This ensures all media enquires are responded to promptly and efficiently and that the media are used pro-actively to publicise our achievements. Contact details are as follows:

PJR Communications Ltd
Tel: 01206 843225
Email : peter@pjrcomms.co.uk

With the agreement of the person or persons concerned, we will highlight any compliments or awards that have been given to individuals or to NHS North East Essex.

For all Press Releases, see our News Section

Interpreters

A service for sign language for the deaf is available throughout Essex, and also interpretation services are in place for all the public to use in conjunction with health problems.

Local (formerly HIMP) Action Groups address areas of health inequalities and seek to identify and address difficulties experienced by vulnerable or hard to reach groups in accessing health services. NHS North East Essex works through the local Access Action Group with TaCMEP and the Diversity Forum, as well as other community groups, to understand and address language issues for people who do not speak English.

Advocacy services are funded by NHS North East Essex for the Learning Disabilities Department. Most are dealt with by MIND and an independent advocate.