Professor Mike Holmes, of primary care provider Nimbuscare, pays tribute to the 'very sp;ecial' St Leonard's Hospice in his latest column for The Press, revealing why it is very close to his heart.

 

There’s been a lot of excitement around the opening of our Acomb Garth Community Care Centre, but whilst this has been happening, our Askham Bar site has been undergoing a bit of a transformation, ready for the Autumn vaccination campaign.

Next month we will be welcoming our patients to have their Covid and flu vaccinations and invitations will soon be going out to the first groups of eligible people.

Please don’t worry, you will not be forgotten and we will be contacting you direct when the time is right. People will be invited in phases so not everyone will be contacted at the same time.

The site has changed quite a lot since people visited for their previous vaccinations.

We now have a new modular building, which has replaced the large tent, as well as a new modular office building for our staff.

New signage is in place and the car park has been given a facelift which newly painted car parking spaces, dedicated parking for disabled people and a much clearer lay out.

Of course, we still have the pedestrian/bike entrance for people arriving without a vehicle and this has been more clearly signposted now.

We hope people coming this Autumn will be pleasantly surprised by all the work that has been done to upgrade the facilities. We’ve tried to focus on what people want to make their visit as smooth as possible.

It was wonderful to welcome George Wood who is a ‘lay member’ on our Nimbuscare Governance and Audit committees.

Working at York Health Authority in 1983, he was one of the team who worked on the closure of Clifton Hospital. Acomb Gables, as it was known previously, was the first of a number of Community Units for the Elderly planned and built by York Health Authority to allow for the closure of Clifton Hospital.

George was delighted to see the building come to life again, this time as a community care centre for a huge range of health, care and wellbeing services.

Our hope is that we can grow the number of community care centres across the city working closely with service providers and services users.

We’ve been busy building relationships across the City, which people will know is something we are keen to develop. As well as many other charities, we continue to work extremely closely with St Leonard’s Hospice in York.

The hospice is not only our neighbour, being based just across the road from our Askham Bar site, but it is our very close partner which we’ve been supporting for some time.

You may remember the team at St Leonard’s were the first staff to be vaccinated way back in December 2020.

St Leonard’s is a very special York-based organisation which cares for people who have had any diagnosis of a non-curable, life-limiting illness.

They also support families and carers during this illness and with bereavement, at any time. Many don’t realise that their teams also support people in their own homes, as well as in the main hospice building in York.

St Leonard’s is very close to my heart and I feel privileged to be on their Trustee Board. Sadly, many people will need the support of a hospice during their life span, whether for themselves or for a loved-one.

I have seen the impact of this having lost my sister in law to breast cancer at the age of 32.

The care provided and the high standards adhered to are a real testament to all Hospices.

Hospice organisations were hit hard by the pandemic. The Government was slow to offer them financial support and they had to campaign to get recognition as providing a vital service throughout those lock-down months.

Obviously, their fundraising activities were  affected and, like many other care organisations, they have recruitment challenges. Despite this they continue to insist on the highest standards and show incredible resilience.

I feel it is more important than ever that we support our local hospice – St Leonard’s has been looking after local people for 35 years and we need them to be here for our future. Supporting people to die well is a key objective for our health system.