Elizabeth Fish

A Lincoln charity has been the latest to benefit from a community project scheme by law firm Ringrose Law.

The Lincoln Friends of Anthony Nolan Charity received £1,000 from the Ringrose Law Community Project Scheme ‘A Grand Idea’.

The charity raises money and awareness for Anthony Nolan, an organisation which helps match donors to those needing bone marrow transplants to help cure them of leukaemia or other serious conditions.

The Lincoln charity helps find donors locally by hosting awareness events, such as talks within community groups.

Statistics show there is a low level of donors within Lincolnshire in comparison to other counties.

It costs around £100 to recruit each donor to the register, so the funding will be used to help organise a new recruitment event.

Julie Cook, Head of Fundraising for Lincoln Friends of Anthony Nolan said: “Taking part in the Grand Idea competition has already raised the profile of our local fundraising group and we are delighted to win £1,000.

“We will now organise our first recruitment and information event for next year and hopefully get some more potential lifesavers to sign up in Lincoln and the surrounding villages.”

L-R: John Knight, Partner at Ringrose Law; JulieCook, Coordinator of Lincoln Friends of Anthony Nolan; Helen Booth of Lincoln Friends of Anthony Nolan, Alfie Cook of Lincoln Friends of Anthony Nolan; Toby Booth who has been supported by the Anthony Nolan Trust; William Sisman and Annabel Sisman who has been supported by the Anthony Nolan Trust.

Ringrose Law set up A Grand Idea in 2013, aiming to give £1,000 each to six different charities and community groups across Lincolnshire and Newark every year.

Paul Cooper, Managing Partner at Ringrose Law said: “We were delighted that Lincoln Friends of Anthony Nolan won the Grand Idea, as this is a charity very close to our hearts at Ringrose Law.

“The work the charity does really can save lives and we really hope this donation to the Lincoln Friends of Anthony Nolan can make a real difference in helping people in Lincoln and the surrounding area. ”

If a charity of community group would like the chance to win the £1,000 on offer in 2015, they can sign up on the website.

Lincolnshire Community Health Services (LCHS) has achieved an overall grading of ‘Good’ in its most recent inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The inspection took place in September, and looked at the services provided by LCHS, such as inpatients; adult services; urgent care; community health, children and families; and end of life care.

The inspections looked at safety, care, efficiency, response and leadership in each areas.

Overall, the CQC was satisfied with what it found within LCHS, however there were a few areas needing improvement.

The service requiring the most improvement was community health services for children, young people and families, which was lacking within safety, responsiveness and leadership.

The only other areas needing improving was safety within inpatient services and adult services.

Services within Lincoln County Hospital provided by LCHS, such as the out of hours service, also rated well.

LCHS were particularly strong at the care and treatment of patients and their families in palliative care services and throughout the Macmillan and community nursing services; in end of life services staff demonstrated compassion and commitment;
more than 98% of patients were discharged, admitted or transferred within four hours of arrival at minor injury units over the last year; and a safeguarding pilot within the school nursing service is managing the needs of vulnerable children and young people.

Andrew Morgan, Chief Executive of LCHS, said: “The Trust Board and I were delighted to hear the Care Quality Commission has rated us as ‘good’ overall.

“Inspectors spent almost a week with our staff and patients, and we were pleased they were able to reflect and agree with our own evaluations about where our strengths and challenges lie.

“We were particularly proud to hear inspectors talk about the feedback from our patients when looking at the caring nature of our services, which they described as overwhelmingly positive. We would now like to focus on making improvements to transform LCHS from a good organisation into an outstanding one.”

LCHS Chief Nurse and Director of Operations, Sue Cousland, added: “This inspection clearly demonstrates the effective and responsive nature of services we provide in Lincolnshire.

“In particular, the CQC have commented on the high standard of caring based on their observations of staff carrying out their daily duties and by the number of accolades received from patients and their families. We are immensely proud of our staff and remain absolutely committed to supporting them to continue to deliver high quality care in the community.

“We fully acknowledge and accept the findings and have already initiated work with our staff in the areas identified for improvement. For example, there is currently no recognised national safer staffing model for community services so, working with our senior clinicians, we have devised our own model to ensure we can deliver safe care at the right place at the right time.

“This was acknowledged by the CQC and has been recognised nationally as an important piece of work. As such we are taking action to implement it across the county as soon as possible.

“Many staff also spoke of the frustration they experience with the current information technology systems. In response, we have already replaced 647 old laptops belonging to frontline clinical staff with new, lighter and more responsive machines to ensure everyone is able to work more effectively.

“We are also working very closely with staff to streamline our record keeping requirements so that they are all able to spend more time delivering direct care to patients and their families.”