New Street Lighting for Upchurch

Photos: Paul Whitehead - Prime One Maintenance Ltd

Contractor Prime One Maintenance Ltd, working on behalf of Upchurch Parish Council, has been carrying out upgrades to 58 street lights around the village.

The new LED lights are dimmable and can be controlled remotely from the companies offices in Sheerness.

Some of the lights replaced were over 70 years old with 'installed in December 1942' stamped inside the control box.

Upchurch Matters

St. Mary's Church to Open for Wednesday Afternoon Private Prayer

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin will be open for private prayer between 2:30pm and 4:30pm each Wednesday beginning on August 19th.

It is expected that there will be someone present who will be available to guide and assist where desired.

The Covid-19 precautions, as advised, will be followed at all times, and the related items for protection will be available.

All are welcome.

William J. Little

Upchurch’s Co-op - Guess How Many Sweets Are in the Jar - Raising Money for MIND

Upchurch’s Co-op is again raising money for their chosen charity partner this year, MIND - the mental health and support charity.

Guess how many sweets are in the jar 🧐

Enter in store for £1 per guess.

The closest guess will be picked on Monday 7th September.

The winner gets to keep the jar of sweets and wins a £10 voucher to spend in-store.

Please ask a member of staff at the till to enter.

Good luck 🤞🏼

Read more about MIND at: www.mind.org.uk

Thank you 

Sally Butcher - Upchurch’s Co-op

Latest POLICE.UK Crime Data for the Area - June 2020

Hartlip, Newington and Upchurch

Here is a brief summary of crime information for the past 2 months:

40 crimes are shown on the map in June 2020 including:

9 Anti-social Behaviour

1 Burglary

5 Criminal Damage and Arson

1 Other Theft

5 Public Order

2 Vehicle Crime

17 Violence and Sexual Offences

54 crimes were shown on the map in May 2020.

Not all crime that occurs is shown on the map.

Please visit: www.police.uk for more information including outcomes for these crimes and contact information for your local policing team.

Lower Halstow and Iwade

Here is a brief summary of crime information for the past 2 months:

29 crimes are shown on the map in June 2020 including:

19 Anti-social Behaviour

1 Other Theft

3 Public Order

6 Violence and Sexual Offences

43 crimes were shown on the map in May 2020.

Not all crime that occurs is shown on the map.

Please visit: www.police.uk for more information including outcomes for these crimes and contact information for your local policing team.

Upchurch Matters

Nominations are Open for the Try Angle Awards 2020/21

Recognising the efforts & achievements of young people in our community.

Do you know a young person who really tries to do their best?

Have you noticed examples of excellence and exceptional achievements from a young person during the difficult period of COVID-19 lockdown this year?

If so, perhaps their efforts should be rewarded by recognition at the annual Try Angle Awards organised by KCC.

The awards, which are in their 26th year, raise the profile of young people aged between 11-18 years (up to 25 years with additional needs) and their families or groups who try hard, often with little recognition and in difficult circumstances.

This has been demonstrated during the current pandemic where there have been so many wonderful examples, during the many months of the Covid “lockdown” by children, young people and their families.

The Try Angle Awards for the efforts and achievements of young people are divided into these 8 categories:

Arts - for personal achievement in arts, in any form.

Music - for achievement in music, in any form.

Sport or Outdoor Activities - demonstrating fair play and commitment in any sport or outdoor activity.

Community Action - marking a contribution made to a community e.g. school councils, youth forums, charity work, environmental project and campaigns.

Good Friends and Young Carers - recognising those who spend time being a good friend, mentor or carer to another in their family or community.

Personal Development - for special achievement in education, training or other activities, making changes to improve.

Courage - recognising acts of courage displayed with coping bravely with illness or other adversity.

Positive Intervention - where an individual or group has prevented harm, bullying, discrimination or damage.

All nominations receive a certificate and are entered into the district finals.

Anyone can nominate a young person for an award. 

3 nominees in each category and their guests are invited to the Spirit of Try Angle County Final where the overall winner is announced.

For more information go to: www.kent.gov.uk/tryangle or contact the team on: 03000 417185 or Email: tryangle@kent.gov.uk

Kent County Council

Medway and Swale Integrated Care Partnership - Newsletter

Bringing together local partners in health and social care

Welcome to the Medway and Swale Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) 

Well before COVID-19, the NHS locally was in the throes of change. Services and organisations who are involved in health and care in Medway and Swale (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) were joining forces as an Integrated Care Partnership (ICP), in line with national direction.

This is a long term change, it's not happening overnight, and there was an unavoidable pause during the height of the pandemic. But we're pleased to say that the Medway and Swale ICP is able to gather pace again.

As with all new ICPs, the ambition is to break down barriers that may exist between the different parts of the system, to make it easier for patients to receive care and for staff to deliver it more effectively. We want to provide quality services by making the best possible use of the resources available to us.

The ICP is part of a national programme of change across the NHS, with the NHS Long Term Plan at its heart, focusing on developing new ways of working to improve the health and wellbeing of local people, aiming for better outcomes and experiences along the journey of health and care.

The Medway and Swale ICP will serve a population of around 412,000 people and play a key role in promoting preventative services, such as helping you stop smoking or lose weight, to reduce your risk of developing long term, potentially more serious conditions such as diabetes or emphysema. We also want to reduce health inequalities, which means we want everybody to have the same opportunity to access health services and live a long and healthy life, regardless of where they live.

All health and social care organisations are also signed up to a commitment to help people and families stay independent in their own homes for as long as possible, to receive treatment closer to home and to avoid being admitted to hospital.

Find out more about NHS changes across Kent and Medway

How GP surgeries changed overnight in response to COVID-19

GP surgeries across Kent and Medway responded rapidly and innovatively to the COVID-19 crisis to ensure they could safely continue to meet patients’ needs.

Practice staff and GPs changed the way they worked - in some cases literally overnight - embracing new technology to deliver consultations virtually; introduce or step up telephone triage systems; implement tougher infection control processes; work remotely and make changes to the waiting and clinical areas.

These measures were necessary to ensure that patients who needed to see their GP or a practice nurse for routine care - such as appointments, or to access repeat prescriptions and immunisations - could continue to do so safely.

The biggest change that patients may have seen has been the way in which primary care consultations have been taking place. Most surgeries are now operating telephone triage and the majority of appointments are now carried out by phone or online unless there is a need for a face-to-face consultation.

Before the pandemic, approximately 25 per cent of GP practices in Kent and Medway routinely carried out online or virtual consultations - now around 75 per cent are doing so. Between March and May, 28,000 consultations have taken place online and 25,500 have been carried out via a secure video link.

Primary Care Networks– which are groups of GP practices working together in a geographical area - restructured services so that patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 were treated at designated Primary Care Treatment Centres. As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to fall, NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group continue to review the future use of these centres, which take patients who have been referred by NHS 111 or their own GP.

Patients with routine needs continue to be seen by their regular GP as other practices were able to see patients that were not showing symptoms of COVID-19 - but changes had to be made rapidly to the physical environment and standard ways of working.

Find out more

Restarting routine and elective services at Medway Hospital

Following the national directive from NHS England in March, we had to take the very difficult step to postpone and cancel some services at the Trust in order to be able to manage the surge in emergency requirements, additional critical care services and other services related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

During this time, we continued to treat patients who required urgent care and patients receiving cancer treatment, and we were able to offer many outpatient appointments via telephone or video call. Unfortunately, we had to postpone planned surgeries and were unable to accept many routine referrals for diagnostic tests.

At the beginning of May, we began plans to restart our routine surgeries, outpatients and diagnostic services safely, while continuing to manage the COVID-19 challenge. We restarted our non-emergency surgery service on 29th June and we are now in the position to be able to offer surgery dates for patients who unfortunately had their procedures cancelled.

We also began to increase the number of face to face outpatient appointments on-site to 70 per cent of our pre-pandemic capacity. The reduced capacity is due to rules around social distancing, and the remaining 30 per cent of patients continue to be offered virtual appointments, which worked successfully during the peak of the pandemic.

Going forwards patients may be offered a face to face outpatient appointment or the option of a virtual appointment by phone or video if appropriate. We are continuing to work with our colleagues in the community and GP practices to ensure the option of a virtual appointment can be offered. We are also now able to accept referrals from GP's for diagnostic tests such as X-ray, ECG and audiology.

We know how upsetting it is to have operations and appointments cancelled, especially for those who are worried or in pain and we would like to thank our local community for their patience during this time. We are working hard to bring all our services back to full capacity, as far as the current situation allows, and to ensure that those waiting for an appointment or surgery are seen as quickly as possible.

Medway mental health services have moved

The following services are now based at Medway Hub, Britton House, Britton Farm, High Street, Gillingham, Kent ME7 1AL:

Medway community mental health service for older people
Medway community mental health team
Early intervention in psychosis
Mental health of learning disability
Mental health primary care nurses
Mother and infant mental health service crisis resolution and home treatment team will move at a later date.

To contact any Medway service, call: 0300 303 3189

Patients and service users in Sittingbourne and Sheppey are not affected by these moves and can access services on the usual numbers - details here: www.kmpt.nhs.uk/our-services

Read the full newsletter at: https://bit.ly/2PRykOl

Medway and Swale Integrated Care Partnership