Describe External Factors That Affect Own Organisation…
An external factor that affects ECCH is the political factors. An example of this is the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The CCG are given money by the government to fund various Healthcare Organisations across the UK such as East Coast Community Healthcare so that they can afford to deliver out care across their respective communities. This is why we have to be compliant with their policies and legislation which are also put onto ECCHO (East Coast Community Healthcare Online) for all staff to see and be made aware of. Another external factor that could affect ECCH is the economic factor.
An example of this is what I’ve previously mentioned about ECCH in the summer/ winter months not having enough staff due to holidays and sickness and having to pay for ‘bank staff’ to cover for the people who are off, therefore costing ECCH a lot of money in wages and stationary. In addition to this, high deprivation will have a negative impact for all services within ECCH. Poor housing & income can contribute towards to various health issues, an example could be people getting a lack of nutrition in their diets which results in poor health for both adults and children therefore higher demand for healthcare.
Deprived areas such as Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth often have a lot of people drinking alcohol and taking illegal drugs, this often leads to more people with mental health problems and this will impact healthcare as there will be a high demand for healthcare. Political factors such as Brexit could have an impact on ECCH if Brexit prevents foreign nationals from working in the UK and places to store supplies being imported into the UK from abroad.
Other factors include another healthcare organisation located in Norwich (Norfolk Community Health and Care Trust); it doesn’t affect ECCH’s patients directly but it affects ECCH’s services when East Coast comes up against them to bid for services/tenders in the local area. There are staffing issues in health care and it is a national issue, in addition to this, a poor transport infrastructure to this area does have a negative impact on staff getting to this area from further afield and sometimes may cause staff to leave this ECCH in order to move to a job closer to where they live or to a place with better transport infrastructure.
Explain How External Factors Affect Own Role…
External Factors such as the CCG affect my role within ECCH because they fund them and East Coast funds the Quality Team which I work in. They also set the Policies and Legislation which all employees have to be aware of and follow. This includes what I’ve mentioned in a previous module about me having to follow Data Protection Legislation such as, not leaving my smartcard in my computer when I’m away from desk and also ensuring that I don’t search people on SystmOne who I don’t need to, because that is legislation that the CCG has put in place for all employees to follow.
By not complying with it, East Coast would be breaching the contract which they’ve made with the CCG and this could result in the CCG not funding us anymore and that could result in my organisation declaring bankruptcy and all employees would lose their jobs as well as a lot of patients having to have their care transferred to a different healthcare organisation.
The CCG give ECCH a set amount of money each year which we use to supply set services to this area. If we can not meet these services within budget or do not meet them to a satisfactory safe standard, the contract would be breached and this could be taken away from us. If the government changes anything with the NHS, this will impact on the CCGs which will then have a domino effect and impact on us too.
