About the organisations taking part The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve. We work in the following ways: Making sure services meet fundamental standards that people have a right to expect whenever they receive care. Registering care services that meet our standards. Monitoring, inspecting and regulating care services to make sure that they continue to meet the standards. Protecting the rights of vulnerable people, including those whose rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act. Listening to and acting on your experiences. Involving the public and people who receive care in our work and working in partnership with other organisations and local groups. Challenging all providers, with the worst performers getting the most attention. Making fair and authoritative judgements, supported by the best information and evidence. Taking appropriate action if care services are failing to meet fundamental standards of quality and safety. Carrying out in-depth investigations to look at care across the system. Reporting on the quality of care services, publishing clear and comprehensive information, including performance ratings to help people choose care.
Newcastle City Council (adult social care and support) works with older people and with adults with physical, sensory, learning or cognitive disabilities and impairments, or mental health difficulties or addictions living in Newcastle. People may require support because of disability, illness, age-related frailty or because they provide unpaid care for a loved one. Protecting the most vulnerable in society is one of the council s most important responsibilities. We have a statutory responsibility to prevent, reduce, and delay people s needs for social care support, including providing information and advice to people. We also commission a wide range of preventative services such as housing-related support and services focused on improving and promoting wellbeing and health. These services support people with low level needs and are aimed at helping individuals to live independently and maintain their quality of life. We have a duty to assess where there is an appearance of need, and for those with eligible needs, arrange a package of social care support for an individual and their carer. Assessments take place in the community or following a hospital admission and are carried out in close collaboration with the individual and their carer, and with partner organisations, particularly the NHS. The National Eligibility Criteria is used during the assessment process to determine eligible needs. People with eligible needs for councilfunded support in the community receive a Personal Budget. Individuals and their carers can then arrange services to meet their needs using a Direct Payment, or the council can arrange these services on the individual s behalf. The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides services from the Freeman Hospital, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Campus for Ageing and Vitality (formerly Newcastle General Hospital), Centre for Life (fertility and genetics services) and Newcastle Dental Hospital, as well as a range of community services including Walk-n Centres, nursing and therapy services. Last year (2014 15) we saw more patients than ever before with over 1.72 million patient contacts. We remain committed to putting patients at the heart of everything we do by continuing to enhance the quality and safety of our services. We consistently perform well against various national patient satisfaction standards including the National Patient Surveys and the NHS Friends and Family Test and are committed to listening to the people who use our services and acting on their feedback. We are proud to have achieved one of the top scores in the 2014 National Staff Survey for staff recommending the Trust as a place to receive treatment. Our priority for the coming year is to remain one of the best Foundation Trusts delivering the highest quality of care that meets the needs of our patients. Our principle in the delivery of care is to treat our patients to the standards that we would expect, not just for ourselves but for our family and loved ones. This means: Patients come first People and partnerships are important Professionalism at all times Pioneering services Pride in what we do
NHS England leads the National Health Service (NHS) in England. We want everyone to have greater control of their health and their wellbeing, and to be supported to live longer, healthier lives by high quality health and care services that are compassionate, inclusive and constantly-improving. A lot of the work we do involves the commissioning of health care services in England. We commission the contracts for GPs, pharmacists, and dentists and we support local health services that are led by groups of GPs through Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). We are working closely with local CCGs, including Newcastle Gateshead CCG, to support the development of integrated out-of-hospital services based around the needs of local people. This is part of a wider strategy to join up care in and out of hospital which could lead to a number of benefits for patients and the public, including improved access to primary care and wider out-of-hospitals services, with more services available closer to home and a better patient experience through more joined-up services. We value our links with groups such as Healthwatch Newcastle and the feedback which they are able to provide on patients and the public s experiences of local health services. NHS Newcastle Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and is made up of doctors, nurses and other health professionals, supported by experienced health service managers. Our job is to make sure there are local health services in place for the people of Newcastle and Gateshead. Commissioning is the planning, choosing and buying of local health services to meet the needs of local people. We are responsible for the majority of local NHS spending including most hospital based care, community health services, mental health services and urgent and emergency care such as ambulance services. All local GP practices are members of the CCG and work alongside specialist healthcare professionals and managers, combining expertise and experience to improve healthcare services and benefit the people of Newcastle and Gateshead. What does this mean for patients? Because the CCG is made up of GP practices and family doctors we believe we are well placed to fully understand our patients needs, and are able to develop responsive health services, making sure that patient care is always at the heart of our decision-making, and ensuring we continue to provide best practice and evidence-based medicine. You can find out more about NHS Newcastle Gateshead CCG at www.newcastlegatesheadccg.nhs.uk
The North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust operates across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham and Teesside. We provide emergency and urgent care and patient transport services for an area of around 3,230 square miles and we employ over 2,500 people who serve our population of approximately 2.66million people. We currently have 65 Trust locations, including 56 emergency care ambulance stations. A number of these stations also house non-emergency Patient Transport Service employees and vehicles and we share some of our sites with fire and rescue services. Our mission - Why we wear our badge. Safe, effective and responsive care for all. The pride we place in delivering our services marks us out as second to none in terms of reliability, professionalism and compassion. People rely on us for the responsive services we provide all day, every day, throughout the areas we serve. Our vision - Where our badge will take us. Unmatched quality of care, every time we touch lives. Even in the most challenging situations we will strive to perform to the highest professional standards in a spirit of collaboration and teamwork, no matter what the circumstances. We will be acknowledged as the leading specialist care provider when looking after the patients in our care. Vocare is a clinically led leading provider of outsourced urgent healthcare services in the UK. We deliver safe and efficient health services in close collaboration with the NHS to deliver innovative and quality services. Our priority is to improve access to urgent healthcare and ensure that patients receive the appropriate level of care to meet their needs from the right service at the right time. We believe innovation and a true partnership with the NHS are the keys to providing quality and integrated services. In the North East of England Northern Doctors Urgent Care operates the NHS 111 service, in partnership with the North East Ambulance Service, delivering a triage and referral service across the entire region to over 2.5 million patients. We also operate Urgent Care Centres in the following local areas:
Royal Victoria Infirmary North Tyneside General Hospital All of these services can be accessed via NHS 111. We also provide a GP out of hours service across the North Tyneside and Newcastle upon Tyne areas, which are accessible by ringing the 111 service. Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health and learning disability services in Newcastle and across the Northumberland and Tyne and Wear areas. This includes the Community Mental Health Teams in Newcastle for adults, young people, older people and community learning disability teams. As well as this we provide a range of inpatient services.