I recently
went to visit the Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale (HMR) children’s community nurses based at Callaghan House in Heywood.
For
background, the nurses are part of our HMR Children’s Acute and Ongoing Needs
Service, which was launched in September last year to bring together a range of community services for children and young people and make them
accessible through a single point of access (SPOA).
During my
visit, I was keen to see how the team was finding the new service arrangement.
I was pleased to hear that the bringing together of the children’s specialisms
in the borough is working well and seems to have improved access to support
through the one telephone number.
I also wanted
to find out about the team’s experience of mobile working. The children’s community
nurses were one of our pilot teams for adopting mobile working and PARIS – our
electronic patient record – and it’s proved very successful. Lisa Hufton, the service
lead for the Children’s Acute and Ongoing Needs Service, is a real advocate of
the system and of the new mobile devices the team are using to allow them to
update electronic records while they are out on visits.
We have to
acknowledge that the implementation of PARIS across the Trust so far has not
been without its challenges so it’s positive to hear from a team who have
adopted it successfully and are seeing real results. We’re at a stage where
around 25% of the Trust is using PARIS and further support is needed to
continue the roll out to the remaining 75%.
We’ve invited Lisa to attend an
upcoming session with the Board to demonstrate how PARIS and mobile working has
worked for her team, share some of the obstacles they faced, and join the
discussions about the investment needed to complete the roll out.
Another
highlight of the visit was learning of the partnership work the nurses are
doing with Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS). It involves the staff
referring families to GMFRS if they may benefit from health and wellbeing
checks which include fire safety advice and accident prevention. The
partnership works both ways, with GMFRS contacting Pennine Care if
they come across any families who may benefit from health support. I know this
is happening in other service areas but I’m keen to see if happening
consistently across the Trust so have put Lisa in touch with our Fire Safety
Manager to share this best practice.
I just want
to thank Lisa and her team for giving up their time to meet with me and for sharing
their experiences.
The exec team
will be conducting more visits around the trust on a regular basis and will
share updates with staff via the blog.
Thank you
Martin
Martin
Martin Roe, Chief Executive (Acting)
