As part of the 'Medicine for the Soul'  month in April, the East End Health Network gave health advice to local  residents by holding a stall at the Whitechapel Idea Store on the 23rd April.  The stall was a great success and allowed local residents to engage with  the EEHN team and in particular talk to our chronic disease nurse  who gave advice on
chronic disease management

Message from Moorfields Eye Hospital

Diabetes can lead to blindness. A simple and free of charge eye screening appointment once a year monitors your eye health and dramatically cuts the chance of vision loss from diabetic retinopathy. For the last 50 years, diabetes has been the leading cause of blindness in adults of working age, but it is preventable. An hour once a year sounds more than reasonable to keep your eyes healthy and your sight intact. However many people in the Tower Hamlets community are not attending their appointments. By the time symptoms of diabetic retinopathy occur, it is often too late to repair damage and lost vision. Some patients with changes may experience no symptoms at all, making attending screening
vital.

 If changes related to diabetes are found at the screening appointment, patients will be referred to either Moorfields Eye Hospital on City Road, or The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. The next step is to see a specialist and arrange
any treatment if necessary. Patients can be kept in clinics and monitored more frequently if needed. All Pregnant patients with diabetes should be seen in screening as a precaution as they are at risk of retinopathy developing more
rapidly. 

Appointments that are not attended cost the Programme hundreds of thousands of pounds, meaning money that could be spent on improving services is being wasted. If you receive and do not attend your eye screening, you are taking the space of another patient. All patients should receive a letter with details of their upcoming visit. The letter includes a phone number and our admin team are more than happy to rearrange appointments if you cannot make them. The programme is as flexible as possible to help patients, but higher attendance levels are now
critical. 

All persons with diabetes living in or attending a GP in the following postcode should be in the Tower Hamlets Screening Programme for diabetic retinopathy: E2, E1, E1W, E3, E14. Local GPs should be referring patients in when they move into
the area or when they are diagnosed. Patients can ask to be referred if they have not been already. 

Please take the time to protect your eyesight and attend screening.

Some pictures from the East End Health Network (EEHN) Pop Up clinic at Whitechapel Market. The day appeared to have been a roaring success with many people engaging with the team and enquiring about the range of services that we offer from our respective practices.

EEHN's guiding principle is around early intervention & prevention with the aim to promote health checks and create awareness about long term conditions. Also to empower people with health information to assist in detecting cancer early and to encourage cancer screening as well as providing  information about support services available.

The Health and advice links project has been running since 2004 and provides advice sessions at 4 of our surgeries within the East End Health Network. Trained advisors provide advice a wide range of issues ranging from welfare benefits, housing and debt. The advisors also actively refer patients onto self management of chronic condition courses, employment and training courses, ESOL and volunteering opportunties.

Research has shown apart from clinical issues, there are other contributors to people’s ill health, such as housing, low income, debts, rent arrears, and immigration problems; these underlying problems are all significant in increasing people’s stress levels, causing anxiety and depression. These problems are too often brought to GP’s. The Project enables GP’s and their staff to refer these patients to the advisors who are based at the practices and are experienced in dealing with these issues.

The project’s aims are to:

• Divert inappropriate demands from GP’s and other Health Care Professionals to Advisors who are better qualified to deal with these requests.
• Contribute to improving the health of priority groups by increasing income and reducing stress.
• Increase awareness and understanding amongst primary care staff the value of advice services.

Current Work

• Provide social welfare advice directly to patients each year in their local practice on a weekly or fortnightly basis.
• Appointments with Advisors are 30 minutes (longer for complex issues.) Advisors will do follow up work at their own base.
• Complex cases are referred to specialist Advisors either at own base or other agencies.
• Refer patients to self management of chronic conditions courses, ESOL, employment and training courses and volunteering opportunties
• Where appropriate Inter-practice referral arrangements have been set up.
• We can arrange for home visits for housebound patients.
• Support and provide ongoing Training for Advisors.

The Albion Health Centre is holding a free cancer awareness event on the 22nd Sept 11am - 2.30 pm 333 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1BU.  

If you want to understand more about cancer, NHS choices has clear and concise information which you may find helpful.

Social Action for Health has also been actively involved with increasing cancer screening for the people of Tower Hamlets & in particular increasing breast cancer screening towards the national target.

Health E1 is a Homeless Medical Centre which provides free health care services to homeless people in Tower Hamlets. 

The service is for adults who are homeless or vulnerably housed and who may have a drug or alcohol problem and/or poor mental health. It can be difficult for an individual to register with a GP in the usual way without an address. Health E1 is a nurse-led service with GPs and other specialist nurses. Health E1 offers full, permanent registration with the practice and thus can provide continuity of care. Previously, homeless people came to rely on local A&E and Walk-In Services as they could not register with a GP.  

The service tries to offer appointments when needed in comfortable surroundings with polite and friendly staff. 

Patients can:
Get a routine appointment within 48 hours
Book an appointment at least two weeks in advance
Book a GP telephone consultation if that is more convenient.

The service also has a daily walk-in clinic on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday mornings and Friday afternoons. In addition they offer a wide range of other services including: Home Visits, Psychologist, Health Visitors, Family Planning, Blood Clinics and Blood Borne Virus Team, New Patient Health Checks, Substance Misuse Clinics, Mental Health Clinics and Alcohol Services.

Health E1 is located at:
9-11 Brick Lane
London
E1 6PU
Phone: 020 7247 0090

Health E1 provides a much needed service in an area with a large number of hostels and day centres. 

The Bangladeshi Stop Tobacco Project is a community based project that has been established for more than a decade.    The projects objective is to raises awareness around the health risks of tobacco use in the form of smoking cigarette and chewing tobacco in paan alongside areca nut. Currently in Tower Hamlets approximately 50% of women chew tobacco.  Tobacco usage amongst the Bangladeshi ethnic group is one of the highest rates in UK.  

Within the Bangladeshi community chewing tobacco is perceived as the norm and is embedded within the culture for many years.  There are many underlying reasons why people use tobacco; from addiction to socialising. Tobacco use has detrimental health effects in particularly lung cancer amongst smokers and oral cancer amongst chewers.  Our aim is to tackle those issues through education and by providing support on their journey to quit.  

BSTP  offer a friendly and quality service to all their clients.  They prescribe Nicotine Replacement Therapy and motivational support as part of tobacco cessation treatment.  They can provide group health workshops to home visits in the comfort of their own homes.

Patients are able to self-refer by phoning the following helpline telephone number 0207 882 8669

Health E1 and Tower Hamlets are mentioned in this report from the Nuffield Trust and the King's Fund examining new GP organisations forming to allow care provision at greater scale.

Securing the future of general practice: new models of primary care

Click here for a more detailed map of EEHN.

Dr Simon Brownleader and Ashraf Ullah presented at the Nuffield Trust event:Transforming general practice: building GP networks in June 2013.

A copy of their slideshow can be seen here.