Milton Keynes Community Health Services Annual Report by W S A

Milton Keynes Community Health Services Review of 2011/12 The annual report for MKCHS

Useful Contact Information Milton Keynes Community Health Services

Milton Keynes Hospital

• www.mkchs.nhs.uk • Switchboard - 01908 243933

• www.mkhospital.nhs.uk • Switchboard - 01908 660033

Milton Keynes Council

Milton Keynes Urgent Care Service

• www.milton-keynes.gov.uk • Switchboard - 01908 691691

• www.miltonkeynesurgentcare.co.uk • 01908 201022

LINk MK (local involvement network)

Milton Keynes Equality Council

• www.miltonkeyneslink.co.uk • 01908 266696

• 01908 606224

NHS Choices - the NHS Website NHS Direct • 0845 46 47

Citizens Advice Bureau • 01908 604475

• www.nhs.uk

Have you heard the great news about MKCHS? No. It’s been called the jewel in the crown of the local NHS. What else? It’s delivered care within its budget. Over 90% of staff feel their role makes a difference to service users. It has an engaged workforce. Wow! It’s had no cases of MRSA and has high service user satisfaction levels. And strong relationships with local partners. Sounds great! It had its most successful staff awards and nine staff survey indicators improved. Plus it published its Equality Duty in January. Wow again!

Chairmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s welcome Everyone who watches the news or reads the latest national headlines knows that the NHS is facing a challenging time. It is having to find very significant savings to re-invest into services, at the same time as implementing the changes required by the Health and Social Care Act. NHS organisations in Milton Keynes are not exempt from these challenges. Here at Milton Keynes Community Health Services (MKCHS), we are committed to improving the quality of care provided to those who use our services, while doing our bit towards increasing efficiency. MKCHS officially separated from the Primary Care Trust in November 2011 and joined Bedford Hospital Trust on an interim basis while we establish a permanent â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;homeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. We are in discussions with local partners to ensure that our integrated services, which are the envy of many other areas, are protected and continue to develop to support local people. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Board of Bedford Hospital for the support they have provided to our directors. Finally, I would like to thank all our staff for the continued professionalism, commitment and passion with which they provide the highest standards of care to those who use our services, whether on one of our wards, at a medical centre or in their own homes.

Dr Euan Henderson Chair

Managing Director’s introduction I am very proud to lead Milton Keynes Community Health Services, which has been described as the “jewel in the crown of the local health economy” by the Milton Keynes Local Involvement Network. MKCHS is responsible for providing NHS community and mental health services across Milton Keynes and specialist dental services across Buckinghamshire. We provide a wide range of community and mental health services, which are currently managed in four service directorates: • • • •

Adults and older people’s services Joint mental health services Children’s and secure settings services Patient safety and standards services

MKCHS has a strong ten-year history of integration with Milton Keynes Council and has been working closely with Milton Keynes Hospital to create joint services. We have built a strong working partnership with our commissioners and this is continuing as our local Clinical Commissioning Group becomes established. Mental health, intermediate care, community equipment and learning disability services are integrated across health and social care and are provided through pooled budgets and integrated teams. The last 12 months have proved to be a challenging time for MKCHS with continued uncertainty about our future organisational form. However, despite this challenge, we have continued to perform well and strengthen our ability to provide high quality services for the people of Milton Keynes. The success of our organisation during the previous 12 months is testament to the commitment of our highly skilled and dedicated staff. As we look forward to the next year, it is our intention to strive for even greater achievements and to provide the best outcomes for people using our services.

Cathy Walker

Managing Director

MKCHS Facts Milton Keynes Community Health Services is currently part of Bedford Hospital NHS Trust. It spends £60 million a year on providing a wide range of NHS community and mental health services. Just under £50 million of our income, which equates to about a seventh of the total NHS spend in Milton Keynes, comes from NHS Milton Keynes. The other £10 million comes from neighbouring primary care trusts and Milton Keynes Council. Many of our services, including mental health, intermediate care, community equipment and learning disability, are jointly managed in conjunction with Milton Keynes Council’s social care services as part of what is called a Section 75 agreement. This agreement, as set out by the NHS Act 2006, enables health bodies and local councils providing health-related services to pool money and integrate resources and management structures.

What we do • MKCHS provides high quality health and social care services, tailored to the needs of individuals and delivered close to home • As well as providing community health and social care services to the residents of Milton Keynes, we deliver health care services at Her Majesty’s Prison Woodhill and specialist dental services across Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire • Our services are delivered from 25 sites, but mostly we provide services within people’s own homes • We provide more than 50 different community health care services • We employ 1,000 staff. Our latest staff survey showed more staff than average feel well engaged with the organisation • About 720 Milton Keynes Council and MKCHS staff work within a joint, single management structure • Nearly 60% of residents have rated Milton Keynes as having joined up community and social care services. This outcome was more than 20% higher than in other parts of the country • We have seen improvements in our staff survey results • We continue to benefit from having an excellent reputation

The Money MKCHS has delivered a small surplus for each of the last three financial years in line with our financial plans to utilise in full the resources provided to deliver patient care. Our total expenditure for 2011/12 was £60,113,523. We made efficiency cost savings of £2,410,926 in the year.

MKCHS Expenditure 2011/12 Adult and Older People’s Services – £10,119,133 Children and Secure Settings Services – £15,343,490 Patient Safety and Standards Services – £9,170,408 Learning Disability Services – £1,013,638 Mental Health Services – £1,013,638 Corporate and Estate Services – £6,284,864

Our total income was £60.2m for 2011/12, and the main commissioners for services were NHS Milton Keynes (£51.1m), Milton Keynes Council (£1.3m) and Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (£0.95m).

Income by Purchaser £m – 20111/12 Primary Care Trusts – 56,778 Foundation Trusts – 953 Local Authorities – 1,343 Education, training and research – 879 Other – 247

Our Board members Dr Euan Henderson – Chair Euan has been the chair of the Milton Keynes Community Health Services Board since 2011. Prior to this, Dr Henderson had served as a non-executive director at Milton Keynes Primary Care Trust for ten years. Euan was a local councillor from 1981, served as the Deputy Leader of Milton Keynes Council from 2002 to 2008 and was the new city’s mayor in 2009/10.

John Garner OBE TD – Independent Committee Member John has served as a non-executive director in a number of organisations in the region. He was awarded the OBE for services to special needs children and is married with two sons and five grandchildren.

Wendy Lehmann – Independent Committee Member Wendy is the Chief Executive of Milton Keynes Citizens Advice Bureau. In her position as an Independent Committee Member she currently chairs Milton Keynes Community Health Services’ strategic workforce committee, the equality and human rights committee and the Mental Health Act sub-committee.

Geraldine Schofield MBE – Independent Committee Member Geraldine joined the Milton Keynes Community Health Services Board in 2009. She is also a Justice of the Peace and a governor at Northampton College. In 2002 she was awarded an MBE for services to the biotechnology industry. Geraldine is a visiting professor at the University of Exeter. She has a degree in botany and microbiology and a PhD in microbial ecology and taxonomy.

Cathy Walker – Managing Director Cathy took the helm as Managing Director for Milton Keynes Community Health Services in October 2009. She is responsible for providing strategic leadership and delivery of the community and mental health services in Milton Keynes. Cathy joined the NHS aged 17 as a nursing assistant, before training as a mental health nurse.

Jane McVey – Director of Human Resources Jane has worked for the NHS for many years, having come to the Milton Keynes area as part of the commissioning team for the opening of Milton Keynes General Hospital in 1984.

Ruth Weetman – Operational Director for Patient Safety and Standards Ruth has led the Patient Safety and Standards directorate since its formation in September 2008. The main remit of the directorate is to champion patient safety and quality standards and support the clinical directorates to achieve this. As well as the support service remit, the directorate is home to clinical services which endeavour to deliver accessible and quality care, addressing local need.

Jill Wilkinson – Operational Director for Community Services/Director of Nursing Jill is responsible for leadership and management of the services that provide support to children, young people, their carers and their families. Jill’s portfolio also includes responsibility for adult and older people’s services. Jill trained to be a general nurse at Leeds General Infirmary and then undertook her children’s nursing course at The Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street.

Anna Selby – Operational Director of Joint Mental Health Services Anna is responsible for leading the integrated joint mental health services for Milton Keynes, working across health and social care, ensuring the delivery of a full range of community and inpatient services for people with mental health problems. Anna’s clinical background is in nursing, specialising in older people/dementia.

Dr Nanda De Silva – Medical Director MBBS., DPM. MRCPsych, DMS. Dr De Silva joined Milton Keynes Community NHS Trust as consultant psychiatrist in 1999. As clinical director for mental health from 2001 to 2008 he developed the medical staffing strategy for mental health services.

Jenny Williams – Director of Strategy, Business and Transformation Jenny provides leadership and support to MKCHS for the development of strategy, the organisation’s transformation programme and portfolio of contracts. This includes programme managing the implementation of the strategic development plan. She also leads all negotiations with commissioners on behalf of the team.

Simon Crick – Interim Director of Finance, Performance and Information Simon joined MKCHS in early 2012 and is responsible for financial planning, management and control, and also performance management and the IT function. This involves working with the Board, Directors and senior managers to meet targets and ensure we are a high performing organisation. Simon is a qualified accountant with 16 years NHS experience across both providers and commissioning.

The Services We Provide Adult Community Nursing • District Nursing • Community Matrons • Peripatetic Nurses • Specialist Nurses in Dermatology, Epilepsy, Continence Care and Tissue Viability • IV Therapy Services

Community-Based Adult Mental Health • Assessment and Short Term Intervention Team • Early Intervention in Psychosis Team • Assertive Outreach Team • Acute Home Treatment Team • Recovery Service • Complex Needs Service • Mental Health In-Reach to HMP Woodhill • Improving Access to Psychological Therapies • Dementia Team • Memory Assessment Service • Redwood/St Giles Day Service

Dental (Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire) • Priority Dental Service • Out-of-Hours • Oral Health Promotion • Secure Settings

End of life Care Specialist Community Team Health Visiting and School Nursing Team Infection Prevention and Control In-patient and Specialist Adult Mental Health • Acute In-patient Care • Rehabilitation Unit • The Older Person’s Assessment Service

The Intermediate Care Services • Community Team • Intermediate Care Beds • Rapid Access Intervention Team • Home to Stay Team • Early Supported Stroke Team

Learning Disabilities Adult Community Team • Community Team • Residential Unit • Supporting People Team • Short Breaks Service • Day Services • Employment Support Services

Physical Disabilities • Adult Neurology Re-enablement Team and Unit • Neuro Specialist Team • Re-enablement and Falls Clinic • Wheelchair Service • Aids and Adaptations, including Medical Equipment Service

Secure Settings - HMP Woodhill Specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Specialist Children’s Health Services • Safeguarding and Children in Care Team • Children with Complex Needs • Paediatric Occupational Therapy • Community Paediatrics • Specialist Paediatric Services • Child Health Information

Therapy Services • Adult and Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy • Adult Hearing Service • Community Occupational Therapy Service • Podiatry Service • Musculoskeletal Assessment Service

Our staff Our Workforce Headlines for 2011/12 The year 2011/12 saw a reduction in numbers of staff employed by Milton Keynes Community Health Services compared to the previous year, largely in response to changes in the way services are commissioned and the need to provide services as cost effectively as possible. We employ just under 1,000 staff, the majority of these are clinical staff. We continue to have a diverse workforce - 85% of our workforce is female, and 18% come from Black and Minority ethnic groups (an increase of one per cent on the previous year), with an age range from 17 to 78 years old. We remain an attractive employer, able to recruit and retain staff, with the number of people applying for jobs increasing. Results from the 2011 staff survey indicate that staff are more motivated and able to contribute to improvements at work than in similar organisations, with 96% of staff indicating that they have received health and safety training in the last 12 months. Our sickness rate increased slightly from the year before and our turnover also increased, largely due to transfers out of the organisation of sections of our workforce. The underlying turnover rate is below the benchmark for similar organisations and we continue to monitor this. More staff have accessed training this year and we continue to ensure that staff have appraisals and appropriate support.

Yearly Comparison – FTE by Staff Group 450.0 400.0 350.0 300.0 250.0 200.0 150.0 100.0 50.0 0.0

Medical and Dental

Managers and Senior Managers

Administration and Estates

Healthcare assistants and other support staff

Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting Staff

All Scientific, Therapeutic and Technical Staff

Students

Mar – 11 FTE

56.7

34.5

230.5

167.3

382.3

181.0

6.0

Mar – 12 FTE

51.0

34.3

211.0

165.3

355.6

161.6

9.5

What our staff say about working for MKCHS More than 90% of Milton Keynes Community Health Services staff feel their role makes a difference to local service users, according to the latest staff survey results. This is the first year MKCHS has received its results separately to the Primary Care Trustâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. The survey, commissioned by the Department of Health, asks a series of work-related questions to a randomly selected number of staff. This year 400 people completed the questionnaire. The results show that MKCHS scores above the national average for staff motivation at work, staff engagement and those feeling their contribution makes a difference to service users. Nine indicators have shown an improvement since last year. Eighty-two per cent feel valued by their work colleagues, 92% believe MKCHS provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion and more than the national average feel our incident reporting procedures are fair and effective. Our organisation has scored above the national average in many of the indicators. This highlights the work we are doing to empower staff to provide suggestions on how we can support service users better and the way we are tackling the financial challenges facing the NHS while ensuring our services strive to continuously improve. The latest survey results compare MKCHS with other community health trusts, which do not provide mental health services. These can be the most challenging of our service areas for our staff.

Safeguarding Vulnerable People Safeguarding Children has been in the national media over the last few years, flagging up devastating outcomes that can happen when systems to protect vulnerable children fail. Working Together to Safeguard Children (2010) is statutory guidance which sets out how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with the Children Act 1989 and Children Act 2004. Milton Keynes Community Health Services has a small team of nurses and a doctor who are specially trained to offer advice, support and training to staff about safeguarding children. We are confident that because of the ongoing work to ensure staff have the required skills and competencies, it will enable them to identify and take appropriate action when there are safeguarding concerns. This therefore ensures staff are better able to safeguard and promote the welfare of vulnerable children within Milton Keynes. Safeguarding Adults has been driven up the agenda both nationally and locally over the past ten years through a series of national directives and through many high-profile cases reported in the press. Milton Keynes Community Health Services is a full and active member of the multi-agency Safeguarding Adults Board. We have set up internal structures and processes and work proactively to safeguard people at risk of harm by assessing risk, training the workforce and monitoring all safeguarding activity.

Tackling MRSA and Clostridium difficile We continue to play a significant role in maintaining very low numbers of patients admitted to hospital with MRSA bacteraemia (MRSA in the bloodstream). Milton Keynes is now covered by East Midlands Strategic Health Authority which sets a standard of no more than two cases of MRSA bacteraemias across all community care within Milton Keynes (MKCHS is one of many providers of health care outside the hospital). In 2011/12 there were no cases attributed to Milton Keynes Community Health Services. Incidence of Clostridium difficile is also monitored very closely and in 2011/12 our target was radically reduced from 59 to 21 cases across all community health providers in Milton Keynes. In total, 33 cases were reported. However, of these only one case was attributed to Milton Keynes Community Health Services’ in-patient settings. Proactive and innovative work around Clostridium difficile continues to reduce the number of cases to the absolute minimum possible.

In-patient units declared ‘excellent’ Every year all NHS Trusts in the UK are required to undertake an in-depth audit of their in-patient settings which have ten beds or more. MKCHS has three premises which qualify for a Add Patient Environment Action Team Assessment (PEAT) audit - the Campbell Centre, Windsor Intermediate Care Unit and TOPAS (The Older People’s Assessment Service). The PEAT audit focuses on the ‘patient perspective’ and ‘patient journey’. Therefore MKCHS ensures that patient representation is included on every audit through LINk MK. Below are our results from the 2011 audit.

2011

PEAT Section

Campbell Centre

TOPAS

Windsor ICU

Environment

Good

Food

Excellent

Good

Excellent

Privacy & Dignity

Excellent

Promoting and respecting the privacy, dignity and human rights of the people who use our services is both a national and local priority. Work has been undertaken to establish a ‘dignity champion’ in all of our clinical services and a champions’ network, with regular meetings, is in place. We wanted to know how patients experience our services and to use this information to make improvements and shape the work of the dignity champions. Questionnaires were distributed at Windsor Intermediate Care Unit (WICU), the Campbell Centre and TOPAS. A representative from LINk MK was available to support patients with the completion of the questionnaires The majority of respondents gave positive feedback, with many saying their carers were kind, friendly and helpful and that they felt listened to.

Being productive The Productive programmes are part of the ‘Energise for Excellence’ national initiative. This was set up by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement to remove inefficiency from clinical areas and release time to spend on direct patient care. Milton Keynes Community Health Services has been rolling out the ‘Productive Ward’ programme across four key in-patient areas over the past three years: • Windsor Intermediate Care Unit • The Older People’s Assessment Service (TOPAS) Mental Health Unit • Hazel and Willow Wards of the Campbell Centre All units have made good progress with rolling out the modules of the programme and have developed systematic ways of leading on continuous improvements in patient care. Roll out of ‘Productive Community’ Services began in January 2011 and 33 community teams have now begun on the programme.

Our Strategy and Performance Illustrated Mission

Necessary competitive advantages

Strategic Objectives

High qual and social to ho

Understand influence & add value to the Commissioners agenda

Transform and innovate Community Services pathways of care providing care closer to home. Increasing quality contact time, reducing waiting times and promoting self care

Provide high quality experience and outcome for service users

Build lean, customer focussed and cost efficient services able to withstand market testing

Abi to o innov serv

Work with commissioners and other partners to reduce costs and overheads whilst improving quality

Enab

Leadership/Organisational culture/Skilled, capable and able to deliver strate

• Developed intermediate care e.g. Home to Stay, IV therapy to support prevention of admissions and admission avoidance.

• Piloted Integrated practice mee and case management model

• Re-designed integrated pathway to adult health and social care

• Improved uptake of mandatory

• Re-designed Mental health single point of access, dementia pathway and recovery team and achieved efficiencies

• Developed strong relationships organisations during a period o

• Hit first year target of Health V

• Rolled out programme of IT sy

• Risk rating – 6 categories • Produced Quality Account • Good performance on PEAT • Achieved full CQC Registration • Achieved NHSLA Level 1

lity health l care close ome

ility offer vative vices

Apply best practice quality assurance regimes

Drive up quality of services, complying with regulation regimes and improve experience of people who use our services

• Good reputation • Strong leadership team • Strengthened clinical and corporate governance • Improved performance on o Waiting times Co-ordinate o Mental Health service use survey multiple o Staff survey results commissioners • QIPP contracts – signed by 31st March and service • Demonstrated a “can do” attitude and suppliers strong leadership team with a good clinical representation

Exploit new information technology and management reporting systems

Influence and manage the transition to a new organisational form

blers

d flexible workforce/Management governance structure egy/Communication

etings using risk stratification

Visitor Implementation Plan

y training

ystem implementation

s with commissioners and partner of significant system change

• Generated a surplus for the 3rd year running • Delivered 4% efficiency target • Transformed dental services and achieved efficiencies and QIPP savings • Minimised disruption to services by robust impact assessment of all de-commissioning proposals where they had not been generated in consultation with MKCHS

Our Pledges and Objectives Milton Keynes Community Health Services has six pledges: • We will provide services which increase well-being, helping people manage their own health and keeping vulnerable people well and at home

• We will offer health and social care services which provide value for money by reducing waste and utilising our flexible workforce effectively

• We will strive to be recognised by our customers and users for our collaborative approach, willingness to involve, can-do attitude, responsiveness and flexibility

• We will succeed by exploiting our strengths – team working, our ability to change/evolve and manage risk • We want our employees to feel valued, challenged and supported • We will increase our accountability to the public

To transfer our pledges from paper to the services we provide we will have to: • Understand, influence and add value to the NHS Milton Keynes agenda • Ensure we provide a high-quality service to patients and service users • Be able to offer innovative services • Offer good clinical quality outcomes to patients by applying best practice To succeed in transforming our services so that they offer the highest quality of care to our users and provide the best value for the taxpayers’ money, we have developed six objectives. Work on these objectives has been ongoing for the past three years.

Objective One - Transforming community service pathways of care We will continue to establish ourselves as a key partner within a new organisation and be at the leading edge of the health and social care transformation agenda. This means we will find innovative ways of improving quality of care, ensuring it is delivered close to home and reduce the need for service users to be admitted into hospital, saving them the distress and the high cost of a hospital stay. One way we will do this is by extending our community-based services, which have received national recognition. We are integrating a number of our services with Milton Keynes Council’s social care services and introducing a single point for patients to access the services.

Objective Two - Building lean, customer-focused and cost efficient services able to withstand market testing We are going to improve the effectiveness and cost efficiency of our services. We have a target of making 4% efficiency savings over the next two years - something we have already achieved in the previous two years. We will give all our staff the skills to ensure they can be deployed across a number of services. We will do this while improving quality and increasing the satisfaction of our service users.

Objective Three - Working with commissioners and other partners to reduce costs and overheads All local health services face significant financial challenges and we want to provide services of the highest standards. We also want to provide a range and scale of services which allow us to be competitive. We will review all clinical services to ensure they are as efficient as possible. We will also continue to make best use of our resources, while working with commissioners to seek opportunities to redesign and transform services.

Objective Four - Driving up the quality of our services and complying with our regulation procedures MKCHS will ensure it has implementation plans in place for its top five safety priorities. These include Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) targets, adverse events analysis, Safety Thermometer (a local improvement tool for measuring, monitoring and analysing patient harms and harm-free care), training targets and safeguarding. We will continue to develop our Patient Experience Strategy as a way by which our safety and effectiveness objectives are measured and assurance is provided to our Board.

Objective Five - Implementing new information technology and management reporting systems MKCHS is changing its services to deliver more responsive, higher quality health care. One of the ways of achieving this is by replacing old unreliable IT and paper systems with just a small number of electronic systems. One such system, RiO, is currently being introduced and provides a secure individual electronic care record for every patient.

Objective Six - Managing the transition to a new organisational form We want to maximise our potential and ensure we are ready for our merger with Milton Keynes Hospital and the subsequent launch of a local whole-system health care provider.

Our achievements Our Objectives Achieved in 2011/12

Quality improvement

Having achieved full CQC registration, MKCHS also achieved all its CQUIN targets. CQUIN (Commissioning for Quality and Innovation) payments enable commissioners to reward excellence by linking a proportion of our income to the achievement of quality improvement goals. A new process for quality assurance was implemented and the organisation re-registered with the CQC under Bedford Hospital to reflect our new hosting arrangement. We produced our Quality Account, which received positive feedback from stakeholders and launched a service user involvement strategy to deliver real measurable improvements. Our Transfer of Care policy was completed and assessed, as were our safeguarding adults and children assurance frameworks.

Financial plan

For the third year running MKCHS ended the year with a surplus and successfully delivered its four percent efficiency target.

We redesigned a mental health single point of access, the dementia pathway and recovery team and achieved efficiencies. We also redesigned the integrated pathway to adult health and social care and developed intermediate care e.g. Home to Stay, IV therapy to support prevention of Service development admissions into hospital. MKCHS also piloted integrated practice meetings, using a risk stratification and case management model. It was the first year of the Governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Health Visitor plan and we hit our recruitment target. We also transformed dental services and achieved efficiencies and QIPP savings.

Performance key targets

2011/12 saw MKCHS achieve improved staff survey results, uptake of mandatory training and performance on waiting times e.g. there has been a 67% reduction in the total number of people who have to wait for an appointment for the Musculoskeletal Assessment Service and a 68% reduction in the wait for a paediatric consultant.

Commissioner relations and contract delivery

In a year that saw a number of decommissioning proposals, MKCHS managed to agree and sign its main contracts before the year end. Robust plans and impact assessments were developed for the decommissioning proposals where there had been no consultation with the organisation. MKCHS continued to develop strong relationships with commissioners and partner organisations during a period of significant system change.

Board development

We maintained our very good reputation and strengthened clinical and corporate governance. The year saw us establish good communications systems with senior managers and throughout the organisation at a time of significant change. MKCHS demonstrated a â&#x20AC;&#x153;can doâ&#x20AC;? attitude and strong leadership team with a good clinical representation.

Transforming Community Services

We responded to all requests for due diligence and joint project work as part of our journey towards a new organisational form. In addition, MKCHS retained a stable and strong leadership team.

Our Staff Awards Once again our annual staff awards ceremony was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the achievements of individuals and teams. There were ten winners out of 74 nominations. Cathy Walker, Managing Director of Milton Keynes Community Health Services, said: “This was our fourth annual staff awards ceremony. We are extremely proud of our workforce who are committed to providing safe, quality care for the people who use our services. The awards are an excellent way of recognising the hard work and contribution our staff make to our organisation’s success. The award winners were chosen for special achievements, including transforming the way we deliver services, patient safety and leadership. “We are very grateful to the public for nominating in the People’s Choice categories – it is fantastic that local people have taken the time to nominate staff who have provided them with care. We received a number of heartfelt nominations, demonstrating what a difference a health worker can make to an individual’s experience.”

Contacting Us Milton Keynes Community Health Services understands that there are times when our patients may have cause for comment or complaint. We are always pleased to hear what you think about our services. Your views and experiences can help us to make improvements to our services. Like most people, we like to know if we are doing a good job. If you believe that you have received good treatment or service and you wish to thank the staff involved please let us know. MKCHS will ensure that your compliments are passed on to the service or individual concerned as quickly as possible. If you would like to make a comment on our services please call 01908 243568 or email complaints@mkchs.nhs.uk. Alternatively, you can tell us about your experience online by making a comment on our website.