No 19 • March 2016IN TOUCH UK

PUBLIShEr: MIcK harTNETT

During December 2015, Eastbourne Kidney Treatment centre celebrated its first year in Polegate. To commemorate the occasion, the clinic management team held a 2-day reception for patients and staff. Staff donated a variety of homemade pastries and traditional dishes from Bulgarian, hungarian, Portugal and the UK.

Since its relocation, the centre has doubled its patient number including the number of transient patients to the clinic. “Being a holiday destination, the clinic treated about 38 holiday dialysis patients during 2015 and this was partly due to Karen Latchford’s dedication and effort during the transition from the temporary site to this present location, and we will keep growing”. Said clinic manager Sonia Figueriedo. She also commended the “amazing cooperation and support from Brighton NHS colleagues – Angela Cole and Kolitha Basnayake”.

Area Manager Jonathan Johnson congratulated the clinic on its anniversary

and applauded the staff for their “commitment and dedication to improving the quality of life of the patients.” He commented on the harmony and cohesion within the team and urged them to continue to build on that momentum for future years.

On 12th January, Crawley also marked the first anniversary of its move to the permanent facility on Whitworth road along with its staff and patients. Thanking the clinic manager, Karen Latchford and staff for the loyalty and dedication shown daily, Area Manager, Jonathan said “It is a privilege to see the expertise and passion of our nurses on a daily basis, and it was a pleasure to be able to join them to celebrate the great job they do.” Commented Jonathan Johnson, Area Manager.

Overall it was a great season of sharing the successes of both clinics.

Eastbourne and crawley celebrate one year

In Touch UK No. 19 In Touch UK No. 1902 03

a Lot can happen in 12 months!

I joined Diaverum in November 2014 as a staff nurse when Diaverum gained four of University Hospital Birmingham‘s clinics. It was a difficult transition for all of the Birmingham teams but I believe we stepped up to the challenge. We left fellow staff behind, gained new colleagues and adjusted to the new environment quickly. In my opinion, we were supported by senior staff wonderfully. Our clinic manager at Great Bridge KTC stayed at the old unit and we did not have a permanent manager for quite a while.

The first senior member of staff who made an impression on me was Dawn Moller. Dawn‘s presence in the clinic was always known. Her personality and strive for excellence began to inspire me. Striving for quality care and personal progression, I worked as hard as I could during this transition period. Senior staff and colleagues came from all over the world to support us. I admired this, it gave me positivity during this difficult period. Previous to this transition period, I questioned my career. Questioned my progression in the field of renal care and haemodialysis. At this point I was regularly searching for new opportunities. On a difficult day I spoke to Dawn about my frustrations and she reassured me. She told me to trust her and continue to work hard because Diaverum recognises potential, I trusted Dawn and I carried on.

For a short time we were supported by Julie Southern. During her stay at Great Bridge she gave me many responsibilities. She trusted me to take charge of shifts, take conference calls and manage staff shortage, finding cover for shifts and relaying all this information to the senior team. I finally felt that someone was recognising my desire to progress and was giving me the responsibility and the chance to learn. Julie Southern reinforced the wise advice of Dawn and I continued to work hard and express my interest to learn and progress.

Our next temporary manager was Mandy Schofield. Mandy truly made me believe in my own ability. She recognised my hard work and made it her mission to enable me to enrol on the advanced renal nursing module before she left our clinic. This module can be studied at degree or masters level as a distance learner through University of Sheffield. I have now completed the advanced renal nursing module at degree level with the help of Mandy and Diaverum! I am now more qualified and knowledgeable, enabling me to provide better care for our patients.

After nearly 3 years as a dialysis nurse, 6 months with Diaverum and the completion of my renal course, all doubts of my career in renal care were gone and I began to want progression again. I felt ready for a senior staff nurse role, so I called upon my area manager. Rachel Hucknall and I discussed progression openly. This was something I hadn‘t had the opportunity to discuss thoroughly before. We began to develop a 5 year plan. At the point of first contact with Rachel I didn’t really know what career path I wanted to take. The question is, management or clinical? Did I want to aim for practice development nurse as my future role or area manager?

Following this discussion Rachel offered me a 6 month temporary secondment, where I would work 60% of my hours at Nottingham dialysis unit as a senior staff nurse to develop my skills. This is where I really began to feel like I was making progress. The experience gained in the past 6 months working at the Nottingham dialysis unit has been an essential part of my career planning and personal development. The travelling has been hard work but each 3 hour round trip was worth it. The Nottingham team accepted me as one of their own, in such a short time I had the pleasure of working with such amazing colleagues and experiencing so much. Adele (Notts Clinic manager) trusted me and supported me to learn and grow as a senior in this short time. Due to the experience gained in Nottingham I have now secured a permanent senior staff nurse role at the soon to open Redditch clinic. I am looking forward to the challenges of once again working in a brand new clinic with a brand new team.

Bring on the challenge and bring on a fantastic 2016!So that’s my Diaverum story so far, a lot can change in 12 months! I’d like to thank every member of staff that has supported me along the way. a special thank you to Mandy who gave me that push and recognised my eagerness, Desiree and adele for supporting my learning and progression within their clinics and to rachel who inspires me to carry on, helped me find my career path and gave me the opportunity to grow.happy New Year all. allie

Editor’s Note: Alexandra Spittle is a senior staff nurse at Great Bridge

Best Practice - Diaverum Television

We are happy to announce the launch of the ‘Diaverum TV’. This is a brainchild of the IT team, which enables us to display clinic related news, messages and adverts on the screen for staff and patient information. This initiative is currently been piloted in a few clinics and has received great reviews especially from patient groups who have seen some quantifiable benefits from its use. “It’s really great to get such a measurably positive outcome from an initiative!” observed Managing Director, Mick Hartnett.

Commenting on the idea behind the concept, James Tilbury, IT Director explained that the “Diaverum TV started off as a trial in one clinic but due to the noticeable benefits to both the business and to our patients, we are deploying the system across all clinics. It is always extremely satisfactory when we see technology being used to fulfil a real-world need; a useful innovation”.

reflections

Hope is an optimistic attitude of mind based on an expectation of positive outcomes related to events and circumstances in one‘s life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include to: „expect with confidence“ and „to cherish a desire with anticipation.“ “A feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen” (Oxford Dictionary).

Hope is the joy of seeing one’s desire come through before it really happens. It is the anticipation of the fulfillment of our dream, desire, wish, longing, yearning… call it what you will but hope keeps the aspiration alive in our heart until we receive it. This joy enables us to wait patiently until we see the result of what we are hoping for. It’s an expectation that overcomes delays, difficulties, complications because we already see the end result in our mind’s eyes, so it’s easy to anticipate the end; to believe that your wish will surely materialise. This is genuine, real hope – not the wishful thinking of delusions of grandeur, nor a righteous indignation of omnipotence but rather a confident expectation of good results, good outcome.

I never cease to be amazed at the story of a great man who endured a shameful death because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards. Incredible isn’t it? Another man, at the ripe age of 90 years believed he would see his deepest desire come true, even when there was nothing to encourage such optimism. He stayed hopeful because he had seen the outcome in his mind’s eye, so it was easy for him to patiently wait for its unveiling – that must have been tough! I love to listen to stories of long standing fulfilled desires; it is priceless, it is like golden apples in settings of silver.

As a new year dawns, as we go through our resolutions and personal objectives, let us rest in the assurance that genuine desires will definitely come through. It may delay but it will not fail. Wait patiently for it.

In Touch UK No. 19 In Touch UK No. 1904 05

running for charity

To commemorate a special birthday this year, Lisa Tuck (née Lipski) has set herself a challenge to complete 10 runs throughout the year to raise pounds for good causes. She will participate in a series of epic marathons including the Sheffield Half Marathon, Rother Valley 5k Colour Dash, Rother Valley 5k Race for Life, Rother Valley 5k Fun Run, Great Yorkshire Run 10k and the Chesterfield Half Marathon.

Lisa has created a fundraising page to receive your online donations. Every donation will make a difference so please visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LisaLipski to show your support. Proceeds will be split between the NKF and Mind.

Fundraising calendar: Dates for your diaries

We are pleased to present the timetable of fundraising events for this year.Get Involved!

The annual World Kidney Day (WKD) event will hold this year on Thursday 10 March.

The 2016 campaign is specifically focusing on Kidney Disease & Children to encourage and facilitate education and a healthy lifestyle in children, parents and the general public.

We encourage every clinic to get involved and try to organise an activity or event to draw attention to the importance of kidney health.

Pen to Paper by Janice

Janice Martin’s long awaited production is ready for public viewing in the summer. Pen to Paper will be presented under Janice’s pen name - Janice Mitchell - and casts include... please show your support by buying a ticket.

**************************************************

PEN to PAPER **************************************************

A PREVIEW OF FIVE PLAYS WRITTEN BY

JANICE MITCHELL

Sunday 7th August 2016

2.30 p.m.

6.30 p.m.

£10 per ticket

(includes refreshments and programme)

ALL PROCEEDS GOING TO NKF

FURNACE GREEN COMMUNITY CENTRE

ASHBURNHAM ROAD, CRAWLEY

RH10 6QU

NKF Fundraising Activities 2016

Jan April May July August

North

Stockton

Midlands

Aston

Great Bridge Tombola

Hereford

Kings Norton Raffle Raffle

Nottingham

South

Crawley

FebMarch (World Kidney Day)!

June Sept Oct Nov Dec Amount Raised

Clinic

Accrington

Burnley

Darlington

Rotherham Lisa Lipski to complete 10 Charity Runs throughout the course of the year

Bag packing in local

supermarket/ WKD Event

Senior staf nurse competng

in fun run

Staf climb Scafell pike

Barrell push round Billingham

Picnic/Party in the park

Kids calender sale

Clinic Manager Climbing Ben

Nevis

quiz - guess the baby nurse

stll going for the statc bike miles just need

venue

Competton bake of cake

bakecar boot sale sponsored walk charity car wash tombola car boot sale

Halloween cake bake

patents party fund raiser

Aiming for £1000

Redditch TBC - Opens March 30th 2016

World Kidney Day promoton

Table top sale/ raffle

Drama Show - Pen to Paper

NKF Fundraising Activities 2016

Forest Hill Jeans Day

Head Office Ben Nevis

Eastbourne

1- BP Blood sugar reading

(community) 2- Nutriton

workshop 3-Cupcakes

sales

1- Easter hamper raffles

1 - Summer Carnival

(Costume contest)

1- Beach Fitness Class

1- Airbourne Day Cupcake sales

1- Hallowen (Costume contest)

1- Clinic Anniversary 2- Xmas Hamper

raffle

Homemade cake sale/WKD school actvity

Easter raffle Manicure Day Who's the baby

SidcupWKD School

Actvity /Easter Raffle

Guess the amount in Jar

Cake SaleWear jeans for the

dayChristmas Hamper

Raffle

Fashion Show Flipathon

(Pancake Day)

WKD Library Talk

In Touch UK No. 19 In Touch UK No. 1906 07

Christmas Everywhere

North

Stockton

Sidcup

Forest Hill

Eastbourne

Rotherham

Crawley

St. Albans

Rudolph

In Touch UK No. 19 In Touch UK No. 1908 09

Grateful Patients thank staff for excellent care

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

I’d like to say a few brief words while we’re all gathered together at this wonderful Christmas Party.

As a regular, for the past 15 months, of the Dialysis Unit, I would like to recognise the great work the staff here does. I would like to thank the team….. Nurses, Doctors, everyone, for the remarkable effort that we all see on a daily basis.

For us, the patients, the challenge of coping with everyday life can sometimes be very daunting. You guys here in the Unit give us all a chance to lead as good a life as possible while waiting for the next step in the cycle. The Unit is a refuge that we know offers a particular and essential lifeline. Maybe you don’t realize how important this is to us all, personally, I find it very difficult to put into words how grateful I am, I’m sure I speak for many of us when I say this.

PLEASE…….. keep up the good workPLEASE…….. know that we all appreciate it

Finally…. I’d like to close by wishing everyone here a Very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. I hope the coming year brings all our hopes to reality.

Thank you.

Jonathan’s Christmas Speech

iWGc Patient Satisfaction results are out!

The results of the iWantGreatCare (iWGC) patient survey conducted in September 2015 were published in late October and we are pleased to report that our scores have improved significantly. More than 87% patients participated in September survey as against 86% recorded in May 2015.

Additionally, over 91% of the participants said they trust their clinic teams, while 88.91% agreed that nursing staff do improve their care. It was encouraging to observe that over 85% of our patients confirmed that they are involved in decisions pertaining to their treatment. Reassurance for the appointment system came from the over 78% respondent who noted improvement in the waiting time before treatment . We are glad to report that over 88% will recommend our clinic to others. Summary of reports and information relevant to your clinic have been displayed on your notice boards.

We have noted the comments expressed in the survey and have put some action plans in place to address your concerns; as part of Diaverum’s commitment to improve the patient experience. Your clinic management team will be happy to discuss these plans with you.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey. We will continue to drive improvements in the areas where we need to focus on. The next patient survey will run from the 22nd -26th February 2016 and we would once again encourage everyone to complete a survey form in the clinic and return to your nurse or clinic secretary.

Surveys are an important way of finding out patient’s views about their care.

health & Safety Training

Health & Safety champions from all the clinics attended a 3-day IOSH Managing Safely training in Birmingham. The training which was facilitated by Quality & Compliance Manager, Lynda Smith aimed to equip the champions with the resources that would enable them manage risks, review their clinics for safety and implement changes.

IOSH Managing Safely course is a nationally recognised qualification.

In Touch UK No. 19 In Touch UK No. 1910 11

New appointments

Moving on…

congratulationsto rachel hucknall and Kim Beak on their recent appointment as operations Director and area Manager, Midlands respectively.

We wish rachel, Kim and Julie all the best for the future!

We are sad to announce that Julie Southern, area Manager North, will be leaving Diaverum at the end of March 2016.

Julie joined Diaverum as Clinic Manager, when she transferred over with the Stockton Clinic in April 2011, and since 2014 she has managed the clinics in the north of England as Area Manager, North. In both of these roles Julie’s commitment and passion have driven great results and high customer satisfaction.

Julie is leaving to start a new and exciting chapter in her life, and will spend much of each year in her beloved Philippines. So, although it is very sad to see Julie leave Diaverum, we are happy for her and wish her the best of success and happiness in her next adventure. Julie said

“I am sad to be leaving Diaverum at this time, but this is not “Goodbye” at all; as I will hopefully return during the holiday season to visit family, friends and maybe use the opportunity to do a brief stint in a nursing capacity at Diaverum. I am grateful for the support I received from Vicki Dobson who realised my potential and to Mick Hartnett and his team for the guidance I received all through my journey. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time both in my role as the Clinic Manager of Stockton Dialysis Centre and as Area Manager for the North. Once again I thank Diaverum for a challenging and stimulating time.”

Birthdays

Judith Law celebrated her 80th birthday in January with the Rotherham team.

Happy Birthday Judith!

Lisa celebrating 40th in a fancy dress with husband Leigh

Congratulations to Lisa Tuck who celebrated an important milestone on 26th January 2016.

Many happy returns Lisa xxx

Take a break!

Crawley

Eastbourne

Sidcup

Forest Hill/Lewisham

Bedford

Hereford

Nottingham

Rotherham

DarlingtonStockton

Accrington

Burnley

HarlowAston CrossKings Norton

Great BridgeRedditch

St. AlbansOFFICE

Treinta y Tres (URU)

Lagomar (URU)INTIR (Renis) (URU)SeineSenniad (URU)

UnediMinas (URU)

DammamOnizah

RiyadhJeddah

Auckland

Uralsk

Aksay

Aktobe

KostanayKokshetau

Karaganda

AlmatyKaskelen

Concepción

Villarica

Lawen-Cañete

Los Ángeles VIII Región

Temuco

Santiago de ChileLindfield

Diamond ValleyNorth Melbourne

Toowoomba

Cannington

Stirling

Rockingham

Santa Fe

Buenos Aires- Avellaneda- Duhau- Gran Bourg- José C. Paz- Libertad- Los Cedros- Malvinas Argentinas- Mármol- San Justo- San Miguel- San Fernando- Temperley- Tigre

Capital Federal- Barracas- PaternalTransplantation Clinic- NephrologyCaleta Olivia

Comodoro

El Bolsón

Santa Nicolas & San Felipe (ARG)

Maipu

IguaçuOberá

PosadasEl Dorado

Tucuman

Sarmiento

Jujuy

Mendoza

EsperanzaCórdoba

Bariloche

FRANCE

PORTUGAL SPAIN

UNITEDKINGDOM

SWEDEN

GERMANY

POLAND

HUNGARY

LITHUANIA

ITALY

TURKEY

ROMANIA

Improving quality of life across the world

Status: February 2015

“Yes, you really can go on holidays while receiving dialysis treatment.” says dialysis patient Roger Stamp.

Whether you plan to explore a new city, visit friends and families in the UK or travel further afield for some sea, sun and sand…there’s a Diaverum clinic near you.

Rachel Hucknall Kim Beak

London

Kent

Birmingham

Harlow

Nottingham

Yorkshire

Bedford

Lancashire

Hereford

Crawley

Eastbourne

Julie Southern

at home abroad.More destinations? Visit www.diaverum.com

easy to arrange treatment sessions | same high standard of care | professional clinical team | friendly and relaxed environment | English speaking nurses | clinics across 20 countries

Mick Hartnett Managing Director UK

Diaverum UK Ltd, Blenheim Gate, 22-24 Upper Marlborough Road,St Albans, HertfordshireAL1 3AL

Phone: 01727 737680E-mail: uk@diaverum.com www.diaverum.com

IN TouCHIN TOUCH is your newsletter and we need your thoughts, ideas & suggestions to make it even better. Please email them to: uk@diaverum.comSpecial thanks to all our contributors!

GET INVoLVED!Remember, this is your newsletter and we’d like everyone to be involved. So, if you have anything you’d like to share, please send it to: uk@diaverum.com

OUT & AbOUT

We are counting down to the opening of the new redditch clinic. construction work is in its final stages in readiness for opening in spring 2016.

This purpose built clinic will be the fifth treatment centre in the Birmingham area to be operated by Diaverum on behalf of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust, and Diaverum’s 17th clinic in the UK.

We are excited about this new facility and will bring you more details in the next edition.Watch this space!

countdown to our new redditch clinic begins