Our Staff are here to help

Patients: Responding to the Needs of People with Learning Disabilities

Giving you good Health Care

One of the main goals for the Trust is to make sure all patients get good health care and treatment. Adults and children with learning disabilities, especially those with moderate to severe disability, often have more health problems than other people.

People with Learning Disabilities often have higher levels of unmet need and the treatment they get is not always as good. At the Hillingdon Hospital we want to make sure we meet the needs of this patient group. We also want to make sure that we provide an equal service that can be easily accessed by anyone according to the Disability Discrimination Act and Mental Capacity Act.

The Trust is pleased to adopt Mencap's 'Getting it Right' charter (pdf pdf, 158KB) which sets out 9 key actions that Mencap believe will help NHS organisations improve the health of people with a learning disability. Agreeing to the principles of the charter truly supports improvements that we have made at the Trust and will support additional improvement work that we want to drive forward in the future.

Patient Experience Questionnaire

If you have been at our hospital recently we would like to know about your experience. Your feedback is very important to us and could really help us to make things better in the hospital and make sure staff are trained properly. Patient Experience Questionnaire (pdf, 161KB)

Having a Good System

We also want to have good systems in place, so we have a Learning Disability Action Group. This group is made up of people from the hospital, the Community Team for People with Learning Disabilities, Central and North West London Mental Health Trust, a service user, carer, and local independent care providers. The group has created a plan based on Sir Jonathan Michael’s recommendations for providers (Healthcare for All, 2008). This plan has been reviewed recently in light of Valuing People Now (2009) and the Six Lives report (2009).

This group is led by the Hospital, and here is a little about what we are doing…

  • We are collecting information and improving communication with the community team and other primary care services. This will help us identify health needs of people with learning disabilities, and make sure they are getting the care they need.
  • Delivering better care – the local learning disability protocol ( pdf, 228KB).
    The new protocol …
    • Will help staff have a better understanding of the needs of people with learning disabilities.
    • Will equip them to deal more effectively with peoples’ specific needs.
    • Includes guidance on pathways of care for emergency and elective inpatient / outpatient care.
  • Providing better information and communication – a Hillingdon Patient Passport ( pdf, 126KB) and newly developed communication aids have been developed.  In addition, the awareness day provided the opportunity for Trust staff to meet and hear about the work of the Community Team for People with Learning Disabilities and directly from people with learning disabilities and their experiences of accessing and receiving healthcare. This was very important learning for all of those present.
  • Staff and patient surveys.
  • Ongoing education and training programmes for hospital staff, plus individual work with specific departments.

The enthusiasm exhibited by the members of the Learning Disability Action Group has been fantastic since the group was established. It is a true reflection of effective cross-organisational partnership working to provide the highest quality of care to people with a learning disability across the health and social care community in Hillingdon. The communication links that have been developed will support our staff in delivering the highest standard of care for this client group. In addition, there is excellent executive engagement and support with one of the Trust Non Executive Directors being identified as champion for the improvement work.

  • We now provide patient information leaflets in 'Easy Read' format on our Leaflets page.

For further information, please contact:
Jacqueline Walker, Deputy Director of Nursing and Chair of the Learning Disability Action Group on 01895 279534

Useful Websites:

References:

  • DoH (2001) ‘Valuing People: a new strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century’’.
    http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm50/5086/5086.htm
  • DoH (2009)’Valuing People Now; a new three-year strategy for people with learning disabilities – ‘Making it happen for everyone’.
    http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4009153

    The 'Valuing People Now' is a strategy launched by the government to improve the health and social care. It shows that service users and their carers are important as full and equal partners to help make these improvements in health and social care.
    The three year plan builds on the work that has taken place since 2001. This will ensure that all people with learning disabilities have better lives. The Government wants everyone with a learning disability to have excellent services.
    Hillingdon Borough Council is the lead agency to manage the developments in services. The Learning Disability Partnership Board's (LDPB) job is to take these actions forward. The group of people who make up the LDPB is now busy looking at services like health, housing, learning, jobs and advocacy.

    'Valuing People says that people with learning disabilities should' - Easy Read ( pdf, 75KB)