At the beginning of March NHS Dorset had its formal move from Vespasian House, Dorchester, to our new home of the County Hall building in Colliton Park. It was a big move after being at Vespasian House for such a long time, but within a week or so we were all settled in and felt like we had always been there!
March began with some welcome better weather and with it the anticipation of lots of great public engagement!
Jim was invited to participate in an event hosted by NHS Dorset and Bournemouth and funded by Wessex Health Partners, which was aimed at understanding how to build people’s knowledge, skills and confidence to enable them to better manage their health. The event attracted professionals from across the Integrated Care System (ICS) and enabled many participants’ views and ideas to be captured. Information from this event will be used in the next stages as we move towards creating a model that can be used to identify people’s motivations around self-care, which can help medical professionals during consultations – so watch this space!
Along with other ICS colleagues, Gill is a member of the Ageing Well Network. At the March meeting there were several excellent presentations outlining how ICS partners will work together to support and prioritise the needs, preferences and dignity of older adults across Dorset. The Network is working on providing a more seamless level of support between health, social care and community services, will focus on preventing ill health and managing long-term conditions early, and ensure all older adults regardless of socioeconomic or geographic barriers have equitable access to services. More on this to follow as the programme develops!
Jim went to the Dorset GP Alliance membership event, which is a great opportunity to network with primary care colleagues and hear updates relating to GP practices across Dorset. He had a stall at the event to promote the ‘Listening Better’ approaches taken in Dorset and had good conversations with GP practice colleagues about how they could be used to improve patient experience.
In March, Gill attended PPG meetings at the Sherborne Grove PPG where we heard of the great success of the monthly Military Veterans Support Group, Barcellos Practice PPG in Ferndown where we talked about the PPG’s plans to offer IT support to patients, Shore Medical PPG in Poole where the group agreed the Terms of Reference and format for future meetings, and Corfe Castle PPG where plans for a patient questionnaire were discussed.
Jim went to several PPG meetings this month including Prince of Wales surgery where the group had their AGM, Weymouth & Portland PPG chairs meeting where Emily Brown from Dorset Council spoke about her work with food security, and Puddletown PPG where they discussed future direction and opportunities for the group. He also met with Sara from Poundbury Surgery, who is looking to restart their PPG after a period on hiatus.
Gill and Jim met with colleagues from Dorset Museum where they had a tour of community spaces and facilities available and saw some of the countless number of items held in storage! The museum wants to help more local groups to make use of the community rooms at the museum, if you know of any groups that would like to explore this opportunity please message: emma.talbot@dorsetmuseum.org.
Jim had a stall at a women’s health information event hosted by Weymouth & Portland Primary Care Network; there was lots of information available along with blood pressure testing and yoga taster sessions. He also met with Prince of Wales PPG and GP practice to talk about a dementia and carers event they’re planning in June; there’ll be more information in future blogs!
Gill hosted the quarterly meeting of the Cross-PCN PPG network (we can’t think of a better name but let us know if you can!) At the moment this meeting brings together PPG representatives from Ferndown, Verwood and Poole PCNs and is a really useful way for members to chat about their experiences and share information. If your PPG doesn’t have any other similar groups in your PCN area and you would like to talk to other PPG representatives, please do contact Gill (gill.foott@nhsdorset.nhs.uk) as we would be pleased to welcome you to a future meeting to see if you might find it helpful.
Jim met with Maria, who runs a weekly session in Weymouth to give people that need it a nutritious warm meal, good company and share hobbies/activities. The group are moving as their current church can longer accommodate them, but they’ve found a new home at another church in the town centre. There is a monthly newsletter of the groups in the Weymouth area that organise similar regular activities, if you’d like more information about this please let Jim know: james.gammans@nhsdorset.nhs.uk
Jim and Gill both joined in the latest Nature Buddies webinar. Nature Buddies is a coordinated volunteering programme which supports people to enjoy nature and helps them overcome barriers to nature. It’s a really brilliant project and if you’d like to find out more, please do check out their website.
We both managed to use up our annual leave before the end of the financial year: Jim and Kelly went to the Russell Cotes museum and art gallery in Bournemouth and saw the Gladiators exhibition at Dorset museum, both are definitely worth a visit! Jim also cheered Kelly on at the Weymouth half marathon.
Gill went to Egypt with her husband and very much enjoyed soaking up the warm sunshine!
Since the government’s announcement about its plans for NHS England we have been in regular briefings and updates with our management team at NHS Dorset on what this will mean for us. We will of course update you further as soon as we can but in the meantime, we are very much focused on “Business As Usual” so please do continue to get in touch if you need our support.
