Keeping you up to date with the latest news from Cwm Taf Health Board

Issue 5 Summer 2013

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HealthcareYour

USEFUL CONTACTSRoyal Glamorgan Hospital: 01443 443 443

Prince Charles Hospital: 01685 721 721 Ysbyty Cwm Cynon: 01443 715 211

Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda: 01443 430 022 Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda Minor Injuries - Phone First: 01443 444 075

Dewi Sant Hospital: 01443 486 222Ysbyty George Thomas: 01443 430 022

Y Bwthyn: 01443 443 758Keir Hardie Health Park: 01685 351 021

Chief Executive’snote

Welcome to our fifth edition of Your Healthcare - our e-newsletter which will help you stay in touch with all the changes and developments to healthcare services across Merthyr Tydfil and

Rhondda Cynon Taf.

The summer may just be ending, but as you can see from the following pages, it’s been a busy month for Cwm Taf, with a lot of news and developments to share with you all, including the latest from the South Wales Programme.

Please share our e-newsletter with your friends and family or anyone else who you think might be interested in keeping up to date with our news. I hope that you find this edition interesting - if you have any ideas for future editions please email our communications team.

Thanks

AllisonAllison WilliamsChief Executive Cwm Taf Health Board

www.cwmtafhb.wales.nhs.uk

Follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/CwmTaf

@CwmTaf

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PREVIOUS ISSUESFree NHS dental care at Ysbyty Cwm 4

Cynon

Unique work experience project at 5Royal Glamorgan Hospital

Stamp of quality for children’s hearing 6services

Gold award for healthy food options 7

Have you met Helen Pugsley? 8

Latest news from South Wales Programme 9

Cwm Taf staff provide life-saving equipment 10 to help Ugandan mothers

Infection rates published 12

Joanna’s on top of the world 15

New technology to store babies’ heartbeats 16

Contents

Use our interactive map for more information about our hospitals

FREE dental treatment in state-of-the-art facilities is available to patients living in Cynon Valley and surrounding areas who aren’t reg-istered with a dentist.

Supervised, final-year dental stu-dents based at the dental teach-ing unit in Ysbyty Cwm Cynon, in Mountain Ash, are providing a wide range of free oral health care.

The unit which opened its doors in 2012 is in its second year and has already helped hundreds of patients reach a good standard of oral health and provided important experience for a new generation of dentists.

Andrew Ashraf, a speciality doctor at the unit, said: “The dental unit has already provided dental care for thousands of patients since it opened just over 18 months ago.

“Patients who had not previously

been able to access dental care have received treatment in a state-of-the-art facility from students who have been trained in the latest techniques.’’

Elaine Mahoney, who lives in Mer-thyr Tydfil, spent eight months looking for a dentist willing to take her on before she heard about the service at Ysbyty Cwm Cynon.

She said: “It’s been brilliant. I’ve even recommended the service to a neighbour who had a problem – and he loves it too.

“I found they have the latest equip-ment and there’s always someone to hand. They are always happy to see you and treat you like a human being – it’s first class.

“I was surprised there were so many people coming here. I’d rec-ommend it to anyone – 100%.”

The unit is able to treat patients who are not currently registered with a dentist from the Merthyr Vale, Pontypridd, Hirwaun and Cy-non Valley areas.

The new unit has 18 treatment bays and follows on from the suc-cess of the first community-based clinical teaching unit at St David’s Hospital in Cardiff, which opened in 2002.

It is funded by the Welsh Gov-ernment and run in partnership between Cwm Taf Local Health Board, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and Cardiff Universi-ty.

Anyone interested in receiving treatment at dental teaching unit at Ysbyty Cwm Cynon can call into the unit to register their interest or telephone 01443 715 000 between 8.30am and 12.30pm and 1.30pm and 4.30pm

Free NHS dental care for patients at

Ysbyty Cwm Cynon

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The catering department at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital has been working in partnership with ELITE to provide a unique work experience for young people with learning difficulties.

Four young people with learning difficulties have started a unique work experience project at the health board. Project Enable, which is run in conjunction with ELITE supported employment agency, the health board’s ca-tering department at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital and the NHS Centre for Equality and Human Rights, started in April and pro-vides young people with learning difficulties from the local area the opportunity to gain invaluable work experience.

The health board is the first in Wales to offer young people Project Enable work placements. Chris English, Operations Man-ager for ELITE said: “Our partner-ship with Cwm Taf Health Board is a great opportunity for our interns. With all four working for one day throughout the week they effec-tively do a job share. We very much hope the transferable skills they learn will help them to go

on to find full time employment. Despite this being unpaid work – it shows great commitment from each of them.”

During his third week, Owen Morgan, one of the interns who is also studying catering hospitality at Coleg Morgannwg, said: “I’m enjoying every bit of it –all the people here are great. The work experience teaches me much more than just the job - it teaches me how to be independent with things like traveling to work. My parents taught me not to worry

about disability – they taught me that it’s personality that matters.” When asked who his favourite celebrity chef was, Owen prompt-ly replied “Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. “When I

finish this and college I’d like to work in a restaurant –I think I’ve got the skills for it.”The success of the project has also sparked interest across Eu-rope. On April 22, Owen played host to a number of European delegates from a pan-European funded project about best practice in services for people.

Shirley Jones, assistant catering manager at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, said: “All the interns have been great. Each of them have picked up the tasks really quickly and fit in really well with the rest of our team. It would be great if we could keep them on.

”We are now 12 weeks or so into the internship and the skills, confi-dence and social interaction skills that the four young people have gained has allowed them to prog-ress to other areas of the catering department. Their tasks include stock replenishment, keeping dining areas clean and tidy, food preparation, serving customers on both food counters and till areas. Some of the young people have even progressed to assisting with the catering on the wards.”

The four interns have been trained and supported with a one to one job trainer from Elite, Sian Willetts. This allows the training to be delivered in a format and pace that suits each individual.

Sian said: “The staff in the Royal Glamorgan Hospital catering de-partment has provided excellent support to our interns. They have been very welcoming and under-standing of our needs and have done much to accommodate us and assist us with our work. This

Unique work experience for young people with learning difficulties

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has made training much easier, as the staff understand why we are doing things in the way that we do them and help whenever they can. “This is true of all of the staff. Shir-ley Jones has been brilliant in her support. She has a very inclusive attitude which has meant that the interns have been treated fairly and equally. This has then been

reflected throughout her staff. The supervisors, Peter and Sam, approach me often throughout the shift to see how things are getting on and to offer support. Ali and Marsella have supported the interns closely on the wards and have been happy to repeat instructions and provide corrective guidance. Gemma has shown the interns what to do in the kitchen

CWM Taf Health Board has re-ceived one of the highest marks in Wales for the quality of its hearing services for children.

A report to the Welsh Government has revealed the health board scored 95.66% compliance against the national quality standards for paediatric audiology standards in 2012. The overall target was 80%.

Royal Glamorgan Hospital, in Llan-trisant, scored 95.81% and Prince

Charles Hospital, in Merthyr Tydfil 95.51%.

The 2012 audit scores represent a considerable improvement on the figures for 2011, which Jona-than Arthur, head of audiological services at Cwm Taf Health Board, said was the result of hard work by staff in both hospitals.

“We have worked extremely hard in developing the quality of our paediatric audiology services,” he

said. “I want to congratulate and thank all the members of the pae-diatric team who have been in-strumental in obtaining these high scores for Cwm Taf.”

Every hospital in Wales which pro-vides paediatric audiology services is assessed against nine quality standards which cover 41 quality criteria relating to 80 aspects of service provision.

and again has been patient and welcoming. She always makes time to show the interns what to do and to set up tasks for them. Lucy and Tina have trained one of our interns on the till. Again the support has been at just the right level so that our intern has been able to pick the task up and with training go on to work inde-pendently”.

Stamp of quality for children’s hearing services

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PRINCE Charles and Royal Glam-organ hospitals have been award-ed gold for their healthy food.

The award follows an audit of the food sold in the hospital can-teens and restaurants by Trading Standards at Rhondda Cynon Taf Council.

The inspector said the healthy op-tions on sale were “fresh, appeal-ing and well prepared” and she praised the “enthusiasm for health-ier eating” from catering staff.

The healthy options award scheme was developed to reward caterers throughout Wales who make it eas-ier for customers to make healthi-er food choices when eating out.

There are three levels – bronze, silver and gold.

The award is open to all caterers who have achieved a food hygiene score of three or more.

Stephen Barnard, head of cater-ing at Cwm Taf Health Board, said: “We’re very proud to have been awarded a gold award for the healthy food options we offer in all our hospital restaurants.

“This award represents the hard work of all our catering staff to of-fer our customers a wide choice of high-quality, well-prepared food.”

Councillor Paul Cannon, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s deputy leader

Gold for healthy hospital foodand cabinet member for econom-ic development and community safety, said: “We are pleased to be able to endorse the healthy food on offer at both the Royal Glam-organ Hospital and Prince Charles Hospital.

“It is so important that people are given healthy options in this day and age, wherever they may be and it is fantastic news to hear that our hospitals are leading the way in promoting healthy living.

“Catering staff at both hospitals offer colleagues, patients and visi-tors access to a healthy, nutritious and affordable diet.”

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PATIENTS being treated for skin cancer will have the support of a new clinical nurse specialist.

Helen Pugsley joined Cwm Taf Health Board in June as a Macmil-lan clinical nurse specialist in skin cancer.

She will play a vital role as a key worker for all patients newly diag-nosed with skin cancer and she will help to raise awareness about the disease, especially malignant melanoma, which is the second largest cancer killer in the 20 to 35-year-old age group.

Helen said: “This is an exciting op-portunity to take the lead in the de-velopment of skin cancer nursing services in conjunction with Mac-millan Cancer Services and devel-op a nationally-recognised service for Cwm Taf clients and patients.

“According to Macmillan statistics, a quarter of patients were unsure of what their diagnosis meant and one third of patients felt abandoned once they had received their diag-nosis. I see a large part of my role to bridge that gap for skin cancer patients. There is a great need to improve the patient experience.”

Helen undertakes four nurse-led clinics a week at various sites with-in the health board. There is also a biopsy clinic and patients can receive photodynamic therapy to treat many of non-melanoma skin cancers. When the clinics are up and running Helen expects to see 60 patients per week.

There are approximately 100,000 new cases of non-melanoma skin cancers diagnosed per year, al-though not usually fatal they can cause serious disfigurement.

Helen works along-side the two skin can-cer specialists for the health board – skin cancer lead and con-sultant dermatologist Dr Julie Martin and Dr Christian Aldridge.

The field of derma-tology is not new to Helen – she joined Cardiff’s derma-tology department in 1994 as a staff nurse acquiring a sound knowledge of skin disorders, topical and system-ic treatments. She developed a photo-therapy service for chronic diseas-es and the photodynamic therapy service in Cardiff.

In 2001, Helen moved to Prince Charles Hospital, in Merthyr Tydfil, to undertake the dermatology spe-cialist nurse position which includ-ed a community role. Her duties included undertaking nurse-led clinics for eczema, psoriasis and acne patients where she taught patients to manage their skin con-ditions.

Before taking up her new post, Helen was responsible for the ad-ministration, teaching and the aca-demic curriculum for the Diploma in Practical Dermatology (DPD) and MSc. The DPD is a highly interactive online programme de-signed to equip the general prac-titioner with a sound knowledge of skin disease as it presents in prac-tice. Helen has also developed a range of short courses and work-shops for nurses, pharmacists, po-diatrists and doctors. In 2011, Helen was awarded the

Bri t ish Medical Association clinical teach-er of the year for Wales.

Cases of skin cancer are increas-ing - the incidence of malignant melanoma (the most serious skin cancer) is rising. There were 12,818 new cases reported in the UK in 2010 – incidence has qua-drupled in the last 30 years. Wales has the highest incidence rate in the UK in men.

It is estimated that around 11,100 (86%) malignant melanoma cases in the UK in 2010 were linked to UV radiation exposure, including using sunbeds.

Helen said: “This new role offers a fantastic opportunity to provide support and expertise to patients, their families and local GPs.

“It’s a great place to work and the team is incredibly supportive. It is the most friendly health board I have worked in and I am real-ly looking forward to meeting as many teams as I can in the coming months.”

Cancer patients to receive support of specialist Macmillan nurse

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53,359Responses to the South Wales Programme

THE South Wales Programme has received more than 50,000

responses to the eight-week con-sultation about the future of con-sultant-led maternity and neonatal care, inpatient children’s services and emergency medicine (A&E) for people living in South Wales and South Powys. A total of 53,359 questionnaires, letters and detailed submissions have been received and are be-ing processed by Opinion Re-search Services, which was commissioned by the five health boards—Abertawe Bro Morgan-nwg, Aneurin Bevan, Cardiff and Vale, Cwm Taf and Powys—to provide an independent analysis of the responses received during the consultation period. Paul Hollard, programme director of the South Wales Programme, said: “We would like to thank members of the public and other interested groups for their input into this consultation and for taking part in this very important debate about the future of consultant-led maternity and neonatal care, in-patient children’s services and emergency medicine (A&E) across

South Wales and South Powys.

“This is a huge response to an NHS consultation and demon-strates how passionate people are about their NHS in South Wales and South Powys and the impor-tance of ensuring high quality care is available as locally as possible.

“It also shows that people under-stand the significant pressures these services are under and the reasons why we need to make changes to ensure they are safe and sustainable into the future.

“In the consultation document, we indicated that health boards would be meeting in October to make a decision about the outcome of the South Wales Programme. How-ever, given the sheer scale of re-sponses and the level of detail they contain, we believe this timescale is now inappropriate. “In order to fully and properly un-derstand and interpret the com-ments submitted by the public, politicians, NHS staff and by local interest and professional groups, we will need to take more time to analyse these responses.

“In view of this, we therefore expect health boards to meet before the end of the year to make a decision about the outcome of the South Wales Programme. We recognise that this is later than anticipated but it is important that we consider all the comments received before the health boards make their de-cisions.” Once the analysis is complete, it will be shared with the five health boards, the Welsh Ambulance Ser-vices NHS Trust and the communi-ty health councils. This analysis of the consultation responses, togeth-er with all the evidence which sup-ports and informs the South Wales Programme to date, will then be considered by the boards and CHCs. Individual health boards will make a decision about the outcome of the consultation and the future for con-sultant-led maternity and neonatal care, inpatient children’s services and emergency medicine (A&E) based on the evidence supporting the South Wales Programme and the evidence from the consultation process.

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Latest news from South Wales Programme

Cwm Taf Health Board and local charity PONT have joined forc-es to provide vital equipment for mothers giving birth at a Ugandan hospital.

The new, purpose-designed Uni-versal Anaesthesia Machine (UAM) for Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, in Mbale, will allow unin-terrupted surgical procedures to be carried out in the hospital’s gy-naecology and obstetrics theatre.

Until now, interruptions to the hos-pital’s power supply and shortages of compressed oxygen have com-promised its ability to provide ur-gent and emergency surgical pro-cedures.

The UAM can deliver anaesthesia in the absence of power and oxy-gen, ensuring safe deliveries in a country whose maternal mortality rate is 43 times higher than the UK’s.

Dr Eryl Hicks, a consultant radiol-ogist at Royal Glamorgan Hospital and chair of PONT’s hospital com-mittee, said: “It’s unimaginable to people in the developed world that surgeons could find themselves operating in theatre without light and oxygen – but that’s what hap-pens routinely in poorer countries like Uganda where power cuts and lack of essential medical supplies put patients’ lives at risk.

“This project is part of a continu-ing partnership with the people of Mbale to strengthen healthcare in their district and another example of professionals from PONT part-nering with peers in Mbale to iden-tify a problem and solve it together in a sustainable fashion.

“We are grateful to Cwm Taf Health Board for their continuing support through the Welsh Government’s Wales for Africa initiative.”

The anaesthesia machine was co-funded by PONT, US anaes-thetist Dr Valerie Rossetti and the Mbale Regional Referral Hospi-tal. Dr Rossetti had been inspired by a paper written by Dr Jodie Smythe who has just completed a six-month volunteer placement in Mbale.

Dr Rossetti said: “Having been in-troduced to the UAM, I was struck at how perfectly it could fill the des-perate need for a reliable anaes-thetic delivery system so lacking in many of the resource-poor hospi-tals in which I have volunteered.

New critical equipment for mothers at Ugandan hospital

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“Helping to donate a system is a wonderful way to support both my colleagues in Uganda, who labour daily under challenging conditions with limited technology to provide anaesthesia care, and their pa-tients.

“I feel privileged to be a small part of improving anaesthetic capacity at Mbale.”

The manufacturer, Gradian Health Systems, is contributing the train-

ing of anaesthesia providers and biomedical technicians at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital later this month.

Dr Benon Wanume, director of Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, said: “We are excited to receive this new anaesthesia machine for labour and delivery. Our partners at Cwm Taf Health Board and our colleagues at PONT have made many valuable contributions to Mbale, of which this is the latest.

“On behalf of the patients, health workers, and the community in the Mount Elgon region we want to express our heartfelt appreciation to all those who made this dream come to pass. The UAM will save many mothers in our hospital. We are looking forward to a visit from PONT’s anaesthesia team in No-vember to see the new equipment in action.”

To learn more about PONT, click here.

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Photo Credit: kaibara87 via Compfight cc Photo Credit: kaibara87 via Compfight cc

Cwm Taf Health Board takes the safety of patients very seriously. This means doing everything we can to reduce the risk of anyone acquiring an infection while they are in our care. Infection preven-tion and control is regarded as everyone’s business and we are committed to supporting staff in preventing infections. We have a zero tolerance approach to pre-ventable infections.

What are healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) and why are they important? An infection occurs when a germ (bacterium or virus) enters the body and attacks or causes dam-age to the whole body or part of it. Some infections can reach the blood stream and become gener-alised throughout the body. This is known as a bacteraemia or blood-stream infection.

Healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) are infections which de-

velop as a direct result of medical or surgical treatment or contact in a healthcare setting. They can occur in hospitals, health or social care settings in the community and can affect both patients and healthcare workers.

We know that on any one day in Welsh hospitals, one in 25 hospi-tal patients will have a healthcare associated infection. This is simi-lar to hospitals across the UK and Europe.

Common infections include Clos-tridium difficile (C.diff) and meth-icillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and these infec-tions are counted monthly in every health board and NHS trust which treats inpatients in Wales.

Staphylococcus (Staph) aureus is a very common germ carried by many people but it is also a com-mon cause of both community and healthcare infections. Some of

these Staph aureus are resistant to some antibiotic treatments and these are known as MRSA.

Clostridium difficile (C.diff) can cause diarrhoea, especially when it infects people who have had antibiotics, and it can sometimes cause very serious illness. Con-trolling it can be difficult because the germ produces spores which can remain in the environment for long periods of time.

High standards of cleaning are needed to remove it so areas where patients may be particularly at risk or where someone has the infection are cleaned with prod-ucts containing chlorine that de-stroy the spores. Hand hygiene is also very important – hands must be washed with soap and water to remove the spores as they are not killed by using alcohol hand gels.

Unfortunately, the fact that some-one is in hospital in the first place

Healthcare associated infections in Cwm Taf Health Board

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makes them more vulnerable to in-fections. Sometimes the illness the patient has means their immune system is under pressure which in-creases their susceptibility to pick-ing up an infection. Being in close proximity to other people who are ill also means there is a higher risk of passing on an infection.

This means we know that hospi-tals will always be places where people are at increased risk of get-ting an infection and while there is no one thing that we can do to eliminate such risks, there are a lot of measures we can and do take to significantly reduce that risk.

The health board takes actions to prevent infections in the first place and to prevent the spread of in-fections where they occur. Such measures include significant staff training, hand washing, hospital hygiene, careful management of catheters and other medical de-vices and preventing the unneces-sary use of antibiotics.

What data is being published?

The numbers of infections report-ed here include the number of pa-tients with C.diff, MRSA and MSSA in the health board area (including samples from GP practices). In addition, we report the number of patients with an infection who have been in a general acute hos-pital. These numbers are based on where the patient was when the test was taken and include inpa-tient wards, outpatients and those who attended A&E. We also report these numbers per 1,000 hospital admissions and per 100,000 population. While we report these numbers related to hospital admissions, this does not necessarily mean that the patient acquired the infection in hospi-tal, even though it was diagnosed there.

This information will be updated every month. The data published for the current financial year (April-March) is provisional and may be modified as further information be-comes available. Provisional infor-mation is marked in red.

Information on deaths where C.diff was recorded on the death certif-icate is provided by health board and by general acute hospital.

Deaths mentioning Clostridium dif-ficile (as underlying cause or men-tioned on death certificate) by ma-jor acute hospital site in Cwm Taf Health Board, all persons, 2008-2012 (see table 1)

Why is the data being pub-lished?

For a number of years, Public Health Wales has made national data available on a range of HCAIs on the Welsh Healthcare Associat-ed Infection Programme website.From July 2013, and for the first time in Wales, individual health boards and NHS trusts are mak-ing HCAI data available directly on their websites. In providing this information and data the NHS in Wales is demon-strating its commitment to provid-ing more: • Openness, transparency and

candor • Accurate, useful and relevant

information

In December 2011, the Welsh Gov-ernment asked healthcare organi-sations and Public Health Wales to work together to produce data and information in a form that was eas-ily accessible and understandable.

How are we doing so far and what we plan to do to reduce our HCAIs further?

As an organisation, we have been

working hard over recent years to reduce the rates of HCAIs in Cwm Taf. These efforts are reflected in the decrease in C.diff rates over the last few years. We have imple-mented a C.diff care pathway to ensure patients receive appropri-ate treatment with close monitor-ing and that infection control mea-sures and procedures are followed to prevent spread.

There has been a slight decrease in MRSA bacteraemia rates over time but there has not been a sig-nificant change in the trend (rate per 100,000 population).

The increasing trend in MSSA bac-teraemia rates over the last few years is reflected across Wales. The majority of MSSA infections were in patients who were admit-ted to hospital – the infection was not acquired during the patients’ stay in hospital.

Cwm Taf Health Board’s aim is to reduce these preventable HCAIs as far as possible. There are sev-eral measures – called care bun-dles - in place to help prevent these infections and when they do occur to monitor their impact and to have standardised processes for the care and treatment.

The health board’s infection, pre-vention and control team contin-ues to provide training and ed-ucation for staff members and

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conducts regular audits to ensure compliance and that good practic-es are being upheld. This includes hand hygiene audits where the hand washing of all grades of staff is observed, reported on and mea-sures are put in place to improve practice.

For example, a general awareness day about the importance of hand hygiene was held by Cwm Taf Health Board staff at Royal Glam-organ Hospital (pictured) on July 9.

We take HCAIs seriously and we are committed to reducing these rates and exercise zero tolerance towards HCAIs

What can patients, their visitors and the public do to help pre-vent HCAIs?

The chances of developing some infections can be significantly re-duced if healthcare staff clean their hands before and after exam-ining every patient. However, for a

number of reasons, including time pressures on staff, this does not always happen.

Ask the healthcare staff who come to examine you if they’ve washed their hands or used the alcohol rub, which should be available on every ward. Remember there is no need to feel embarrassed or awk-ward about requesting that staff clean their hands. For more infor-mation, visit the Clean Your Hands website.

The same advice for hand-hygiene also applies to visitors providing personal care, such as bathing, washing, dressing, helping to feed and toileting for the patient. The staff caring for you should always offer you the opportunity to clean your hands after using the toilet or bedpan/commode and before eat-ing drinking or taking medicines. Cleaning your hands at these times can reduce your risk of get-ting diarrhoeal infections such as C.diff.

Tell your doctor or nurse if you’ve been taking antibiotics prior to your admission to hospital. This will have a bearing on the treat-ment given to you in the event of an infection developing.

Try and ensure you have no more than two or three visitors at any one time. Friends and family who are ill – for example, suffering from coughs and colds, or diarrhoea and/or vomiting - should stay away. If they are unsure, you should ad-vise them to phone the ward and ask a nurse for advice.

Please heed the requests of staff for visitors to leave if, for example, you need to be examined, have your dressing changed or your ward area needs to be cleaned. It is sensible to take children only if absolutely necessary and it is im-portant they are kept under control by an adult visitor.

Patients may be isolated or “bar-rier-nursed” to help prevent the spread of infection to others. In some cases they may be placed in single rooms or cubicles. It is al-ways best to ask the hospital staff caring for the patient about the procedures to follow while visiting.

Cwm Taf Health Board publishes information about C.diff, MRSA and MSSA every month on its web-site. The report is available here.

Table 1

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Hospital 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012Prince Charles Hospital, Merthyr Tydfil

26 11 8 <5 6

Royal Glamorgan Hospital, Llantrisant

21 10 10 5 <5

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On top of the worldAN NHS IT expert has become

the world’s number three in Tae Kwon Do just a year after tak-ing up the martial art.

Joanna Seldon never thought she would represent her county in the Tae Kwon Do world champion-ships but in July - just 12 months after starting to train – she entered the competition at green belt level.

In front of an audience of around 4,000 people, competing alongside more than 1,300, Joanna bought home the accolade of third best in the world in the ladies green belt section - a fantastic achievement for someone who was bullied at school and lacked confidence.

Joanna was inspired to take up Tae Kwon Do in 2012 by the NHS Wales Champions for Health Scheme. She had always fancied trying the martial art but had never had the courage to get started.

Little did she know she would be entering world championship competitions and wining medals for sparring just 12 short months later. But this was not an easy competition - Joanna took a num-ber of hard hits over the course of the three-day event and had to be seen by medics. However, she was determined to finish her 90-second rounds.

This is the latest medal for Joan-na, who trains three times a week – over the last six months she’s won two Welsh open silvers and also a bronze and silver in a Welsh

closed competition add-ing to a silver in the English open.

Joanna said “I once went to an interview for a job and got turned down. A doctor said to me a door will open when you least expect it. This may not be a door to a new job but it’s a door to my new talent and it keeps me fit and happy.”

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A project in Cwm Taf Health Board will benefit from the lat-

est phase of Welsh Government investment from the £25m Health Technology Fund.

A bid has been approved for equipment that electronically stores cardiotocographs, records of fetal heart rate and contractions of the uterus. The technology will support home-based monitoring of mothers-to-be with risk factors, and will play a part in safer home births and decisions about delivery methods.

Bids have been approved on 21 projects across Wales totaling more than £15. The bids include developments in maternity, cancer, cardiac, mental health, diagnostics

Beating heartsand unscheduled care.

Some £5m was allocated to proj-ects in 2012-13, and the remain-ing £5m will be used to support increased use of technology to en-hance services in community set-tings.

Health Minister Mark Drakeford said: “Investment in innovation is essential if we are to achieve our aim of safe, sustainable and high quality health services for Wales.

“Technology has a major role to play in the future of the NHS and provides the tools needed by ded-icated NHS staff. From the per-spective of patients, new technol-ogy can improve service quality, improve outcomes and reduce the

need for care in hospital.

“New technologies are support-ing advances in healthcare so the people of Wales can receive the best possible treatment available.”

Chris White, Cwm Taf’s director of therapies & health science/ chief operating officer said: “The health board is delighted to receive £315,000 from the Health Tech-nology Fund to buy this equipment which will help improve the moni-toring of patients and enable us to store this data electronically and securely for many years to come.”

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