THIS week we’ve seen Nimbuscare launch another service for local residents – a move that we hope will be more commonplace.

We’ve been welcoming the youngest ever patients to our Askham Bar health village, as the first babies and young children are booked into our special clinics.

Working with the hospital trust, on Monday we began an innovative pilot scheme for babies and young children with breathing difficulties.

This service is joint working at its best. Those referred by their GP to our Askham Bar clinic are seen by an experienced children’s nurse, working alongside a GP, in a child and family friendly facility which runs between 4pm and 10pm each evening.

As we move into the next phase of the pandemic, we’re predicting viral illnesses will be on the increase, so the clinic has been set up to help care for these children and their families in a community setting with both GP and Hospital expertise.

Each Saturday we’re continuing to run cervical screening clinics in York to encourage people to keep up to date with their regular smear tests.

All people with a cervix between 25 and 64 should be invited by letter to have a regular test. You should have one every three years if you’re aged 25 to 49 and every five years if you’re aged 50 to 64.

Many people may have missed out on theirs during the pandemic. I can’t stress how important this is and would urge everyone eligible to book in for theirs as soon as they get their letter from the national NHS screening programme. Details can be found here.

Our teams have been working tirelessly. I don’t really know where they’ve found the time to host not one, but two Macmillan coffee mornings, raising nearly £400, as well as run our first Careers Fair in the Tent of Hope at Askham Bar on Saturday which, as our first event of this kind, was a great success.

None of this work could be possible, however, without the support of our brilliant volunteers. This last year we have worked with some very special people and I’ve been humbled by the commitment offered by all the fantastic Nimbuscare volunteers.

It was great, therefore, that their work and that of all volunteers working in the vaccination programme across North Yorkshire and York, was recognised this week when they won the York Mix people’s choice Heroes Award.

It was a privilege to be there to see them pick up the award and be able to both congratulate and thank them on behalf of colleagues across health and social care in North Yorkshire and York.

Our Nimbuscare staff have also been out and about in recent weeks presenting people in our community with our own special Nimbuscare Awards for their outstanding contribution during the pandemic.

We’re still progressing well with our vaccination programmes, with nearly 2.5million vaccinations delivered across the region.

There are multiple vaccination streams in operation as we progress with boosters, continue to vaccinate 16-17 year olds, support the School teams to vaccinate 12-15 year olds and offer third doses to those patients with reduced immunity.

The programme becomes ever more complex, but the teams managing this are doing a sterling job in ensuring the right vaccine gets to the right people.