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An NHS Trust struggling to reach targets for reducing wait times for diagnoses is to spend a quarter of a million pounds to change its name.
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) will make the change as part of a rebrand which will see an overhaul of its website, signage and communication material updates.
Going forward it will be known as Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust (KMMH), a move the trust says will make more clear to patients and their families what services it provides.
On Tuesday (October 15), KMPT presented two reports to Medway Council’s Health and Adult Social Care overview and scrutiny committee (HASC) , one on the state of dementia services and another about the wider performance of the trust.
In the report about KMPT’s performance, the trust outlined how its branding left users confused about what it did and staff avoided the name in explanations of services.
On September 26 the board approved plans for the name change, due to come into effect from April next year, which is expected to cost £250,000 for website, signage and communication material updates.
However, councillors in Medway have raised concerns.
But Cllr David Wildey (Con) said he didn’t feel the new name made much difference if it was just going to be another initialism.
He said: “I couldn’t believe the amount of money that’s costing and, personally, whether you call something KMPT or KMMH is equally as meaningless.
“If you use the full name - it has mental health written in it - then people will understand what it does. That’s not rocket science.”
Representatives from the trust said the costs were already accounted for as this was already due for an update and so the name change would just form part of that.
They added it was important to firstly simplify the brand so patients better understood the service, and secondly to give its employees some pride in the service as this improves the quality of their work.
But councillors criticised the trust’s performance on dementia care waiting times, which have reduced from an average of 27 weeks in June to 22 weeks in September - but are still far from the target of lower than six weeks.
Cllr Dan McDonald (Lab), chair of the committee, said although there was progress it was just not good enough.
He said: “How satisfied are you with dementia services? It’s poor. We’re not getting there.
“Of course there is an upturn here in our diagnosis rate, but it’s still poor.
“When we’re reading the waiting list is 2500 people and the average wait is 22 weeks, it’s really not good enough, is it?“
He also cited figures in the report which predicts the number of people requiring dementia services is to grow by 46.2% by 2030 and said significant changes and progress need to be made because the service was not prepared.
Dr Adrian Richardson, director of transformation and partnerships at KMPT, agreed there was more work to do but said he believed the trust would rise to the challenge.
He said: “We have made some in-roads to cut the average waiting times, but there’s still 154 days that loved ones are having to care for patients, not knowing whether they’re going to remember this Christmas or next Christmas and I will not settle until that is as low as we can get it.
“We’re starting to see that momentum. We want to see 95% of patients referred into the service diagnosed within six weeks by the end of the third phase.
“That is a big ask, I know that, but I think there needs to be a significant challenge.”
The report on the trust’s dementia services highlighted how the diagnosis rate had improved from 57.8% in June 2023 to 61.4%, but was still below the target of 66.6% - which is the predicted prevalence.
The trust had identified the route to getting a diagnoses as being limited based upon a much greater demand than the county’s GPs could manage, and so nine more GPs with enhanced roles in dementia were hired into KMPT in 2023.
The report also identified issues with support post-diagnosis, including inconsistency of availability and accessibility of support, and a lack of communication meaning some patients experienced gaps in support and didn’t know who to contact to amend them.
Councillors praised the integration of community services, such as Chatty Café in Chatham, Age UK Dementia Café in Parkwood, Walderslade, and others which combat isolation in people with dementia through craft sessions and morning clubs.
However, they were concerned that services offered by volunteer groups were filling in gaps left by KMPT.
Cllr Esther Cook (Lab) said: “I think this is a brilliant example of our local community working with our health service, but I’m a little concerned about how reliant we are on volunteers and the community because that might mean support is not spread evenly across Medway.
“How do we make sure support is accessible to everyone and, because it’s so reliant on volunteers, is sustainable?”
