Once again as I write for the Spring Newsletter we have snow making life difficult for everyone, but especially for community nursing teams. Fortunately for our staff, with the help of their relatives and 4×4 RESPONSE (Hampshire) we carried on!

This winter we registered with the 4×4 Hampshire RESPONSE team. This is a voluntary group charging a minimal amount per mile, who if necessary would collect two nurses in their 4×4 vehicles, take them to the patient and return them home or to our office. This gave us peace of mind particularly overnight when our nurses are most vulnerable. They usually undertake this task without a second thought for most of the year. On some nights they might be out several times, but we know that patients or their families will only call if they really need help, and often speak of just feeling reassured by knowing that there is someone to call, who will know who they are and that they won’t have to wait for a call handler to “get back to them”.

The coming year again will be a challenge for The Rosemary Foundation as GPs and community nursing teams go through the changes that will come in April when the Primary Care Trusts become the Clinical Commissioning Groups. We will have to work hard to make sure that we remain a relevant, responsive and appropriate service for both our patients and the GPs.

We attend the CCG governance meetings regularly and meet every three months with the regional team leaders of similar services to ours. The aim of these meetings is to share good practice, to exchange ideas and to help each other with any difficulties that may arise. As one of the first teams in Hampshire providing “Hospice at Home” we have already encountered many situations that our colleagues are now coming across and we hope that we can provide valuable advice and support.

Looking back at past Newsletters, change is a recurring theme and I am seriously in danger of repeating myself. We hope that the one thing that doesn’t change is the high standard of care that we offer to our patients and their families. But we are never complacent about this and would always welcome your comments and constructive criticism concerning The Rosemary Foundation.

All our contact details on our home page, so please call the office if there is anything that you think we could do better. As always, if there is anyone you think would benefit from our involvement, please pass on our contact details. We look forward to the challenges that this year may bring, and hope that a very wet spring, summer, autumn and winter is not one of them!

Last but not least, our grateful thanks to the members of the Petersfield Flower Arranging Society who presented us with a cheque for £800 at their AGM in January. We are sad to hear that the Society may now close because new officers cannot be found to continue the work of this talented group .Thank you for all your support over the years.

Julie Cotsell