A message from Maddy...
And its goodbye from me - memories I will never forget
This will be my final newsletter as I get ready to retire from the NHS at the end of this month. I have loved these past three years working as Chief Executive of Nimbuscare which has been an incredible way to end my career, with memories I will never forget. Thank you to everyone for supporting me and the board and I hope you will all continue to work together to progress even more.
I have organised a couple of gatherings before I leave that you will be invited to, in due course, so I look forward to saying a personal goodbye to you all later this month. And I leave you in the capable hands of the Nimbuscare Board and our Chief Operating Officer Emma Bravery who will take on the leading role from November.
Of course, as we say goodbye to some of the team, we welcome others. This month we have a number of new starters and I want to give a warm welcome to our Corporate Affairs and Events Apprentice Milo Gorner and our General Intern Elizabeth Ferguson who have joined the team. We have also appointed micro ear suction specialist Julie Sellars to work within our new ear suction service which launched last month.
It’s also exciting to see Libby Edwards (pictured) return to us, following a six-month spell at one of our member practices. Libby has re-joined our operational services team as Service Lead. Welcome back Libby!
We have a growing team of staff here at Nimbuscare, employing more than 75 people, so it’s great to see them flourishing. I want to say a huge congratulations to our Clinical Manager/Educator Theresa Ollerenshaw (pictured left), who has been awarded the title of Queens Nurse. This is a very prestigious award given to nurses who have demonstrated a high level of commitment to patient care and nursing practice.
Community activities expand
A number of new activities have launched within our community space. This month we see the start of a monthly social meeting to explore the benefit of cohousing in York, run by the outreach and social team at Spare Handle. Held Wednesday evenings from 6pm til 8pm for local residents and people interested in exploring cohousing in York. For more information visit www.cohousingyork.org
An up to date list of community groups and activities at Acomb Garth Community Care Centre can be found on our website here.
New patient room at Acomb Garth Community Care Centre
A new private patient area, close to reception, is being developed to be used as a quiet room for breastfeeding, prayer or just as a quiet place for patients who need it.
Open day success for wound clinic
Thanks to everyone who attended the Open Event to showcase our new lower Limb Specialist Wound Clinic at Acomb Garth. This new service is now up and running and taking referrals. More details about the referral criteria can be found on our website.
Out of hours service launched
Following a recruitment campaign, 18 new GPs have been taken on by Nimbuscare to start providing an Out of Hours service from 1 October. This represents a great response from local GPs and all the out of hours shifts are now covered for the next six months. This service is a sub contract with Totally/Vocare, providing out of hours cover across York, Scarborough and Malton, from 11pm to 8am. Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to set this up.
Expanding healthcare research
This month we are starting to work with Panthera, a company specialising in clinical trials, to support GP practices with research projects involving patients. This is a very exciting piece of work which aims to develop more healthcare research in the city.
New Cardiovascular hubs help people at risk
We are working with Novartis, a global healthcare company, on our first Cardiovascular hub project to support patients at risk. This is a really exciting new venture, in line with the ICB’s ambition to focus on disease prevention and will build on our health checks for people aged 40 to 70 years old. We will initially invite people who are deemed at risk from cardiovascular issues, focusing, for example, on lipid/ cholesterol management, and will aim to provide a systematic, consistent and holistic approach to those people at risk.
The service has already been successfully running at Haxby Group practice and we are now setting up 3 hubs to be based at Unity Health, Haxby and Acomb Garth.
Equipment amnesty – 16 to 29 October
NHS equipment which is not returned, costs the NHS thousands of pounds each year. To help reduce this waste, Nimbuscare is holding an equipment amnesty at its Acomb Garth Community Care Centre this month.
We are accepting ANY mobility items and have linked up with charity PhysioNet to take some of the items which are difficult to use in the UK.
We will be collecting crutches and walking sticks, shower stools, grab rails, wheelchairs, toilet frames, chair risers, Aircast boots (Moonboots) and any other types of mobility equipment you or your loved ones have been loaned by the NHS to help recover from a procedure or operation.
For two weeks from 10am on Monday 16 October until 6pm on Sunday 29 October, you can drop items off in the blue Medequip bin in the car park at Acomb Garth. The equipment will be repaired, if necessary, and used again for local patients. Medequip and PhysioNet will be using any of the equipment which does not meet our NHS standards, for overseas where we know they will have life-changing impact.
Dr Rumina Onac, our sustainability lead, said: “This amnesty will benefit patients who are waiting for equipment, slash costs to our local NHS from previously wasted or non-returned equipment, reduce our carbon footprint, as we will need fewer brand new items manufactured, and provide life changing equipment for patients in less developed countries. I make that a quadruple win!”
YorTraining supports Nimbuscare teams
Our staff received sessions on Basic Life Support and Fire Awareness this month, thanks to the training team at YorTraining.
Thanks for vaccination effort
Our MMR and Shingles vaccination catch up programme has delivering a fantastic 119 MMR vaccinations and 234 Shingles vaccinations. Thank you to all who were involved in this programme which has meant people get the protection they need.
Events, training and education
Training events and learning sessions for staff can now be found in the staff area of the Nimbuscare website. Please contact us for log in details.
Our newsletter featuring up and coming events can be downloaded here.
More information, certificates and agendas for events can be found on the staff area of our website. To gain access, please contact nimbuscare.education@nhs.net
Diary dates
More information, certificates and agendas for events can be found on the staff area of our website. To gain access, please contact nimbuscare.education@nhs.net
For full details about each of the sessions, as well as other training and development events, please visit the Staff Area of the Nimbuscare website.
