Comorbidity and dementia : a mixed method study on improving healthcare for people with dementia (CoDem)

© Queen’s Printer and Controller of HMSO 2016. This work was produced by Bunn et al. under the terms of a commissioning contract issued by the Secretary of State for Health. This issue may be freely reproduced for the purposes of private research and study and extracts (or indeed, the full report) may be included in professional journals provided that suitable acknowledgement is made and the reproduction is not associated with any form of advertising. Applications for commercial reproduction should be addressed to: NIHR Journals Library, National Institute for Health Research, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, Alpha House, University of Southampton Science Park, Southampton SO16 7NS, UKAmong people living with dementia (PLWD) there is a high prevalence of comorbid medical conditions but little is known about the effects of comorbidity on processes and quality of care and patient needs or how services are adapting to address the particular needs of this population. To explore the impact of dementia on access to non-dementia services and identify ways of improving the integration of services for this population

An innovative solution to raise public awareness using a mobile colorectal clinic - The ‘bowel bus’

Introduction: Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the United Kingdom; however, figures show that the uptake for bowel cancer screening lags behind other cancer screening programmes. Methods: This is a report of a multi-staged development of an outreach colorectal clinical community service provided through a Mobile Unit (a Bowel Bus). The unit delivers a one-stop colorectal clinic that provides a rapid access pathway to members of the public who have concerns about, or symptoms of, bowel cancer. The aims of the project were to increase public awareness about colorectal cancer and to provide an outreach clinic as a supplement to the hospital based colorectal clinic. This service is a result of collaborative efforts between Tenovus Cancer Care (TCC) and the colorectal surgery department of the local NHS Hospital. Results: During one year, the Bowel Bus has provided services to 772 members of the local community. 244 patients were examined by the colorectal nurse specialist including 66 drop-in patients and 135 patients referred by the GPs.The service led to decrease in the waiting list for routine referrals to be seen in the colorectal clinic at the hospital from a mean of 10.5 weeks to 5.9 weeks. A feedback questionnaire from 180 patients, used to audit the quality of the service, has confirmed an overwhelming satisfaction with the service. Conclusion: The Mobile Unit is a novel solution to addressing the ever increasing demand for specialist outpatient services without compromising the quality of care whilst enhancing the patient experience

Learner Leadership: A Change Agent for UK Interprofessional Learning

So what kind of leadership is appropriate for taking forward inter-professional learning (IPL) in the UK? This chapter will paint the UK IPL landscaper with commentary on IPL initiatives and their response to the steady progression towards differing patterns of care in the National Health Service (NHS). With a long-charted history in IPL and a significant volume of knowledge capital evaluating the impact of IPL models, the UK is on the cusp of an interesting threshold. How are we to realize the next wave of transformation on the UK IPL landscape, and does the current model of leadership help of hinder