Colleagues from CFT and RCHT shortlisted for Chief Allied Health Professions Officer Awards

Angela Gibbon is a Consultant Physiotherapist in Neurological Rehabilitation for Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Earlier this summer, Angela was shortlisted for the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer Awards 2024.

“The shortlisting is for the AHP Innovation and Improvement within Integrated Care Systems Award,” Angela explains. “The initial nomination relates to a project I’ve been leading on, which represents the work of two amazing teams. This includes the highly skilled neuro physios and occupational therapists that we have within our team at CFT, as well as the fantastic team from Cornwall Council. We’ve really collaborated on this project, and the level of work has been inspiring.”

Interviewed earlier this month for the RCHT radio show, Angela explained more about the team’s work and how the shortlisting came about.

“Within CFT Community Neuro-Rehabilitation Therapy Service, we see the most complex neurological patients. We work with patients with brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, strokes, as well as neurodegenerative disorders. These are critical conditions and represent a complex mix of patients. We provide a county wide service, but with only small numbers of clinical practitioners across our county the work can be challenging, especially given the geography of Cornwall.

“We started to think of ways we could better accommodate our patients and one of the areas we looked at was collaboration. We did a pilot for the project last year, which lasted three months. As part of this we took 15 of the patients from the neuro rehab waiting list from CFT. We trained the support workers in the ECHO Centre, which is based in Liskeard, to help manage patients with neuro rehab skills. We assessed the patients, made-up a care plan and then collaborated with them to formulate their rehabilitation goals.

“Patients came to the centre for one day a week for 14 weeks. While they were working on their rehab goals, the teams at the centre had a brilliant habit of turning our potentially dull physio exercises into something functional and fun. Through the group, as well as through the ECHO Centre, we were able to connect patients with other voluntary groups within Cornwall, so they could talk to other people. It became a way of overcoming barriers and helping patients manage any social isolation.”

The outcomes were phenomenal, as Angela explains. “We measured the outcomes at the end of the first 3 months and then again at 6 months. Overall, we had 85% attendance for the whole sessions and from the neuro team’s point of view, it made us 10 times more efficient. We were able to see 15 participants at the centre, instead of the usual 3 or 4 patients a day in the community. It also meant that it increased the intensity of the therapy they were getting, so that was amazing! Our patients felt it made them much more confident in accessing community services. We had some great feedback from patients, carers and staff.”

Also nominated at this year’s awards is Faith Toogood, Dietitian for Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust. Faith has been shortlisted for the Greener AHP Award. Faith led a greener recycling initiative that has already won the CN award for sustainability and been shortlisted for the NHS waste management awards.

Speaking about the shortlisting, Faith said: “The project started on Critical Care, where I’m based. The vision for the project was to ensure all enteral feed bottles were recycled rather than incinerated in clinical waste. The project then grew as I started to explore the value of high-grade plastic and, after reaching out to Biffa, created a separate waste stream, which enables us, through segregation of these bottles at ward level, to divert them into a specialist reprocessing system that repurposes the used bottles into domestic milk bottles.

This not only makes better use of a precious resource and reduces our carbon footprint at RCHT, but it benefits our hospitals financially. The project was then rolled out onto high usage wards and, once further funding has been sourced to support collection of these bottles, I hope to roll it out Trust-wide where the impact will be significant, both financially and environmentally.”

The virtual ceremony for the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer Awards will be held on Thursday 10 October.