Wirral Community NHS Foundation Trust chief executive Karen Howell writes for the Globe ...

I HOPE you've heard about the exciting new era of health and social care in Wirral.

A few weeks ago more than 200 Adult Social Care Assessment staff transferred from the council, joining us to become one of the first NHS trusts in England to provide an integrated health and social care service.

We are now looking for people who have experience of accessing adult social care to be part of the Your Voice Group.

If you have got thoughts and experiences to share, we would love to hear from you.

Your role on the group would be to:

  • Support us to improve the experiences of service users
  • Provide a user's view to inform service plans
  • Help us understand issues that affect users and families using our adult services
  • Promote partnership between the Trust and user groups in the wider community 

If you could help us to make a real difference to Wirral people, their families and carers, ensuring we deliver the right care, in the right place, at the right time, please get in touch.

To find out more email foryouwithyou@nhs.net

Meanwhile it's been six months since we launched our new phlebotomy service.

Since then we've done a staggering 115,000 blood tests and carried out 15,000 home visits.

We designed the new 'hub' model in collaboration with Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group, which pays us to deliver the service.

The aim was to enable us to see more patients each week, reduce the amount of time people had to wait to have their blood tests done and reduce the number of appointments wasted because patients didn't turn up.

The new hub model does it all, and our patients and GP colleagues love it!

Hundreds of patients have got in touch telling us how quick, easy and efficient they find it.

The service now runs from five hubs across Wirral at:

  • St Catherine’s Health Centre (drop-in)
  • Victoria Central Health Centre (drop-in)
  • Eastham Clinic (drop-in)
  • Arrowe Park All Day Health Centre (drop-in)
  • West Kirby Concourse (appointment only)

At the drop-in hubs you can just turn up to your preferred venue and you will usually be seen in less than half an hour.

Our fifth hub in West Kirby runs an appointment only service, which can be booked via our Centralised Booking Service.

Don’t forget if you’re housebound and need a blood test you can speak to your GP about arranging a home visit.

There are a small number of Wirral GP Practices that are not covered by the Phlebotomy Service - visit our website f

For more details visit wirralct.nhs.uk, like us on Facebook/nhsbuzz or follow us on Twitter @wirralct