Published on: 24 August 2020
We are delighted to share the news that a partnership including our Children’s Continence Service has been shortlisted for three Nursing Times awards.
Continence nurses from Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, in a team headed by Clinical Leads Sue Walker and Nicola Fappiano, have been working with colleagues at Derbyshire Community Health Services and Chesterfield Royal Hospital to bring services closer together, with Chesterfield Royal as the lead organisation. It’s been a very successful partnership and, as a result, the combined service has been shortlisted in the Nursing Times Awards 2020 in the Children’s Services, the Enhancing Patient Dignity and the Nursing in the Community categories. For full details of the shortlists, see the Nursing Times Awards website. Winners will be announced on Wednesday 14 October 2020.
The contract for the partnership service was started in April 2019. Since then the three trusts’ services have been aligned throughout all of Derbyshire. This has entailed developments of new pathways, policies, IT systems and service delivery.
Key developments
- All three organisations using the same IT systems for patient records
- A ‘single point of access’ for referrals
- Coordinated training programmes by Derbyshire professionals to create a more standard approach to referrals.
As a result, the partnership has made several achievements:
- The ability to offer initial appointments within five weeks of referral being received
- 750 new referrals since the service was mobilised
- A reduction in cost to the NHS due to savings in completing bladder scans within the service, a saving of £38,719.50, based on 50 patients a year over a seven-year period.
Positive relationships
Area Service Manager Alison Fermor said: “The team has shown that partnership working benefits patients and professionals. Colleagues on the teams have learned from each other, shared good practice and developed positive relationships at all levels within the service, clinically, operationally and strategically.
“Thank you to Children’s Continence Team in Complex Health Service for being part of something to be proud of.”
