My Formby

Podcast One

Nurses Needed

Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals are holding two recruitment evenings for registered nurses and soon to qualify student nurses (not healthcare assistants on this occasion).

Appointments have to be booked via the recruitment team on soh-tr.recruitment@nhs.net for the events which are on Wednesday 24 and Thursday 25 June from 5-8 pm. Interviews will be held at Southport hospital in the Clinical Education Centre.

Teams will be on hand to answer questions about different departments and what it is like to work at the Trust. Advice will be available about career development and training. NHS Professionals will also be on hand for anyone looking for temporary roles with the nursing bank.

Bridget Lees, Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Therapies explains:

“We are very keen to invite local nurses and students to come along to talk to us about a range of opportunities and roles.

“This has been an unprecedented time for the NHS. We have enjoyed so much local support, I am proud of all our staff and community for the way we tacked this crisis. We now hope to welcome more people to our incredible teams, who have pulled through this situation with positivity and determination.”

“We hope these recruitment events make the job application process easier. You can just pop along for an hour or so and potentially go home with a job offer.”

To see other roles available at the Trust, visit the website.

 

Coastal Action Plan

Sefton MBC announces a New Coastal Action Plan

After seeing large numbers of people travelling to locations along its 22-mile coastline, during fine weather Sefton Council has drawn up a new Coastal Action Plan.

Access & parking, facilities, public safety and clear communication are among the key elements of the plan, which covers the Borough’s main coastal locations of Ainsdale, Crosby and Waterloo, Formby and Southport.

Dealing with access and parking will include re-opening Ainsdale Beach car park and Southport’s Esplanade Car Park, exploring more options for park and ride, using variable message signs and continuing with enforcement for illegal and inconsiderate parking.

The Council still wishes to discourage people from travelling to Sefton’s coast at this time, but additional facilities for an influx of visitors will include providing extra capacity for waste and more frequent emptying of litter bins and issuing visitors with free rubbish sacks. Options will be explored for providing more public toilets in a way that is safe for users and the staff required to keep facilities clean and sterilised.

Doing all of these will mean prioritising public and staff safety and implementing COVID-19 control and distancing measures in line with Government guidance. Specific innovations such as a new cashless payment system for on-beach car parking and expanded staff welfare facilities to ensure social distancing will also be required.

According to the plan it is designed to address a series of Formby specific issues.

Specific features at this location:
• Coastal location, car parks and facilities managed by National Trust
• RNLI Lifeguard provision (currently absent)
• Coast accessed from narrow dead-end roads
• Resident population close to coastal location
• Very limited alternative off-street car parking options
• Longstanding local tensions / dissatisfaction
• Public transport connections some distance from coast
• Formby Village Retail area

Download Sefton Council’s Coastal Visitor Action Plan.

 

 

Life-saving Treatment

Southport research supports life-saving Covid treatment

Staff and patients at Southport and Formby District General Hospital played their part in a major international development in the fight against the Covid-19 coronavirus.

The results of the Recovery trial, which involved patients recruited by Southport hospital, suggest the low-cost steroid dexamethasone reduced death rates among the most severely ill Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital. The risk for patients placed on ventilators was cut by a third, and the risk for patients on oxygen was reduced by a fifth.

Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, said that the trial was

“the most important trial result for Covid-19 so far”.

Dr Ashar Ahmed, Clinical Director of Medicine at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, said:

“I want to thank and congratulate, along with my co-investigators Dr Arvind Nune and Dr Stefania Pintus, the whole team here who participated in the trial.

“We have been privileged and greatly enjoyed being part of the Recovery study. Although it was a challenge at an extremely busy time, we recognised this would offer an opportunity for our patients to receive treatment as part of the trial which otherwise they would not have had access to.”

Jeanette Anders, Research Development and Innovation Manager, said:

“The study was led by our research team, medical team, Covid wards and pharmacy, all of whom were committed and instrumental to the success of this vital work.

“The Trust is contributing to a number urgent Covid public health research studies and firmly believes that every patient should have the opportunity to participate in this important research, leading to improved treatment options and better outcomes for our patients.”

Time to get a test

It’s Time to Test: Get an HIV test and break the chain

Sexual Health in lockdown – a chance to make a difference.

Health professionals in Sefton are joining forces to raise awareness about HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) testing and encourage residents that think they may have HIV to get a test.

When someone first catches HIV, they are highly infectious and more likely to pass on HIV than normal. However, HIV infections take between 4-8 weeks before they can be identified through testing. With lockdown having started in March, there are many fewer people in this ‘blind spot’ who would otherwise be missed and testing now could identify almost everyone who has the virus. If those who test positive start effective treatment straight away, the virus will become undetectable and they cannot pass it on to anyone else. Therefore, it is time to take a test to break the chain.

The Free Testing HIV self-sample HIV test service opened on 5 June 2020 to enable residents to easily order free self-sample kits online. The sample is sent to a laboratory for testing and the results are communicated directly to the individual, usually with a text message for negative results and by telephone for reactive results.

Sefton Sexual Health service offers free HIV testing for all residents. The usual walk-in sessions have been suspended due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic but the service has remained open and is offering a telephone triage system. You can call the Single Point of Access telephone number on 01695 656550 to speak to a clinician for an assessment or to arrange an appointment for testing.

Dr Anna Hunter, Sefton GP and champion for the Sexual Health Service, said:

“Time really is of the essence. We urge anyone who thinks they may have had exposure to the HIV virus from unprotected sex before the lockdown to please get tested.

“There is currently no cure for HIV but with early diagnosis and effective treatments, most people with HIV will not develop any AIDS-related illnesses and will live a near-normal lifespan. It is vital that people who think they may have been exposed to the HIV virus order a self-sample kit online or contact their local sexual health clinic to book an appointment today. Early diagnosis saves lives and the NHS is here to help.”

HIV can be a very manageable condition, with treatments available making infection undetectable, meaning you can prevent transmitting it to your sexual partners in the future, allowing you to live a full life in every way. This is only possible with treatment, which is why people are being urged to get tested now.

Margaret Jones, Interim Director of Public Health for Sefton said:

“HIV remains a serious public health concern due to how it negatively impacts some of our more vulnerable groups in Sefton. Now is a real chance to make a difference and to break the chain of HIV infections locally by making sure that people take a test if they think they may have been exposed to the virus.

“When lockdown eases further and sexual activity increases, we would encourage people to use condoms as they are the best way to prevent sexually transmitted infections such as HIV.”

To order a free self-sampling HIV testing kit visit: https://freetesting.hiv/

To find your local sexual health clinic visit: https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-sexual-health-clinic/

For information about the Sefton Sexual Health service visit: www.seftonsexualhealth.nhs.uk as well as information on self-care or to identify your HIV risk via the risk assessment tool “Have you taken a risk?” https://www.seftonsexualhealth.nhs.uk/other-info/hiv-risks

For more information about HIV and AIDS visit: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/hiv-and-aids/