When colleagues at the University of Cumbria (UoC) heard that NCIC’s physiotherapy appointments had been moved to telephone consultations following Storm Éowyn, they quickly stepped in to offer their help.
North Cumbria Integrated Care’s physiotherapy appointments are usually held at the Sands Centre in Carlisle, which suffered storm damage last Friday.
Patient appointments were swiftly moved to telephone consultations as work to assess the damage at the Sands Centre – which is currently closed – got underway.
Andy Reilly, Musculoskeletal Transformation Lead at NCIC, explained: “We are now able to use clinics at the Fusehill Street campus, using the Physiotherapy suite, which is an additional clinical space to the existing UoC/ NCIC joint IMSK (Integrated Musculoskeletal Service) clinic which operates throughout the academic year.
“The Physiotherapy suite is usually reserved for practical teaching sessions for the UoC’s BSc/ MSc physiotherapy programme students, They have been accommodated elsewhere on site to enable the temporary relocation requirements of the NCIC’s IMSK Physiotherapy team.
“The ability to utilise the Physiotherapy suite at the Fusehill Street campus has meant that we have been able to minimise the disruption to our service and for our patients.
“Some elements of the service have had to cease while the Sands Centre is unavailable to us, such as group activity which takes place in the Sands fitness suite and studios, however, one to one physiotherapy assessments and ongoing treatment sessions are able to be offered to patients under our care thanks to the arrangement with the University of Cumbria amongst other venues.
“We are extremely grateful to the University for their support in providing additional clinical space for the delivery of our clinical services.
“The joint response to this sudden unexpected situation, is a great example of how we can work quickly and collaboratively across organisational barriers for the benefit of our local population, and to ensure that we can continue to offer essential, safe, and high quality clinical care.”
The Physiotherapy suite is open Monday to Friday between 8am and 5pm – appointment only. Patients will be informed if their appointment has been moved.
The temporary arrangement is in place this week and next week, pending further information and updates from Cumberland Council and Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL).
Mr Reilly added: “Our administrative teams have worked extremely hard to inform patients regarding the changes in venue for the delivery of their care. Our teams have called patients, and have used Accurx text messages, to ensure that patients are informed in a timely manner of any changes relating to their care.”
Sarah Smith, principal lecturer in Physiotherapy at University of Cumbria, said: “The successful introduction of our joint physiotherapy clinic has been running on our Fusehill Street campus now for almost 18 months and is providing clinical opportunities for our students and supporting our communities and the future healthcare workforce of our region.
“Knowing the impact of the devastating damage that Storm Éowyn has caused to patient services at the Sands Centre, we’re pleased that our team in partnership with NCIC have utilised one of the physiotherapy teaching suites on campus, converting it into an outpatient clinic that will enable the NHS to carry out some appointments and maintain a service to patients during this period whilst emergency works are carried out.”
