Professor Mike Holmes, of Nimbuscare, hails the work of its volunteers - ranging in age from 16 to 86 - without whom it couldn’t deliver its service and who are a pleasure to work with.

 

"Like the rest of the country the Nimbuscare teams took a few days off last week to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – 70 years of continuous service! Appropriately we also marked national Thank You Day on Sunday 5 June, taking time to thank those who have supported us this year.

These events provide the opportunity to not only celebrate but also reflect. As a nation, we often pull together in times of hardship and we did just that during the pandemic. I guess our next collective task is to pull together as we recover from the pandemic – which I think we are all beginning to see is not something that will happen quickly.

Figures from police forces across the UK released last week said violent incidents at GP surgeries had doubled in less than five years. The investigation, by the British Medical. Journal, found the number of assaults at surgeries and health centres resulting in injury had almost doubled too. Police forces recorded 1,068 violent incidents between 2021 and 2022, up from 586 between 2017 and 2018. This is totally unacceptable.

I could easily go on to say it is understandable given the pressure and difficulties the country is facing...but actually is it ever acceptable to abuse or assault someone…especially when they are trying to help. Of course, we do understand the frustration although taking it out on a receptionist, a nurse, a manager or a doctor is unlikely to change anything materially.

I realise I often focus on these more challenging issues, so let’s change direction and talk about some really positive things that are happening because there is much to talk about.

Nimbuscare has been celebrating Volunteers Week (1-7 June). This was a chance to thank all our great volunteers for their hard work. Nimbuscare has benefitted from over 10,000 hours of volunteer time over the last 12 months. They range from 16 years old to 86 and we couldn’t deliver the service without them. They are a pleasure to work with and our volunteer programme is well recognised by the NHS for its part in the successful delivery of our vaccination programme.

The local system has been acknowledged for our work supporting General Practice over the last 6 months or so. The report ‘Next steps for integrating primary care’ - by Dr Claire Fuller, calls for action at every level to address the challenges faced. In particularly sets out a new vision for integrating primary care, improving the access, experience and outcomes for communities. It agrees that effective collaboration across primary care and with the wider health system, is needed. This is something Nimbuscare passionately believes in too. With the support of our local CCG we have developed a system to offer early support into practices so called OPEL 2.5 – I won’t bore you with acronyms but suffice to say this system has prevented practices from facing real pressures and at times has kept them open and bee able to offer more appts and has improved access to care. It is nice to see if feature in Dr Fuller’s report as a case study of good practice and something that others can learn from.

Over the month of June there are a number of positive events in the diary. We are looking forward to supporting York Pride as well as the St Leonard’s Hospice Jubilee Walk on 18 June. Our teams will be taking part in both so please come and offer your support too if you can. At the end of the month we will be opening our new community care centre at Acomb Garth – another example of innovation and collaboration – clear evidence of the way your system is trying to do things differently to improve the services that you can access."