Peninsula and South West Excellence Network joint meeting - a day of networking, learning and informative discussions
The Peninsula and South West Excellence Network joint meeting, 5 November 2019, brought together health and social care professionals and people affected by Parkinson’s from across the region to network, learn and discuss improving support for people affected by Parkinson’s.
Medical and allied health professionals from a variety of specialisms and practice settings represented a wide range of locations and service providers across the South West region of England.
A welcome from Jane Rideout and Ed Richfield
Jane Rideout, Regional Lead of the South West Peninsula Local Parkinson’s Excellence Network and Ed Richfield, Medicine for Older People Consultant with North Bristol NHS Trust and Regional Lead of the South West Local Parkinson's Excellence Network, opened the day to welcome attendees and outlined the busy day ahead.
Presentations for the day began with Asim Yousuf, Speciality Doctor - Acute Medicine, who outlined results from the Parkinson’s Medication Management 2019 Audit at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. Key findings included a 50% reduction rate in patients’ length of stay since 2010, a year on year increase in patient satisfaction (94%) and 97% of accurate medication and timings being recorded.
Next, Professor Richard Walker, Clinical Lead for the Northumbria Parkinson’s Service and Excellence Network Clinical Lead: medicine, gave an international view of Parkinson’s, with findings from a research study of Parkinson’s in Africa.
Attendees also heard from Camille Carroll, Consultant Neurologist, about a home based care pathway her team are launching in Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and then received an update on Parkinson’s UK’s First Steps programme from Martha Holley and Jason Batup. Find out more about First Steps.
Providing a combined approach in North Somerset
After lunch, Parkinson’s Specialist Practitioners, Kim Osborne and Louise Griffiths explained how they’ve combined their two different backgrounds (physiotherapy and nursing) to deliver a combined approach at the North Somerset Community Neuro service. It was fantastic to hear how they had successfully set up a self-led and self-managed exercise group, underpinned by the ten PD Warrior core principles and delivered by the group’s members. This was followed by an overview of Parkinson’s UK’s strategy for the next five years from Steve Ford, Chief Executive.
To round the day off, Ed Richfield spoke on the importance of palliative care when treating people with Parkinson’s and used case studies to demonstrate the different approaches used by health professionals.
Future meetings to continue discussions and learning
If you’d like to see any of the slides from the meeting, keep in touch, and hear about the next event, join the South West Peninsular Local Excellence Network online collaboration space (Basecamp) by email request to [email protected].
We hope to see you at the next next Peninsular and South West Excellence Network joint meeting in 2020!