Reminding All Students: DEADLINE AHEAD!
Are you a student or hoping to become one this year? The Joseph Levy Memorial Fund helps CF adults, aged 18 or over, to develop their careers, by providing grants for educational costs. You must apply before 31st MARCH & the Trustees meet in June. Contact: Elizabeth Neville, Joseph Levy Memorial Fund, 37-43 Sackville Place, London, W1X 2DL (Email: Elizabeth.Neville@shaftesbury.co.uk / Tel: 020 7333 8118)
Sickness Benefits Review
Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) is replacing Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Income Support granted on incapacity grounds. These older benefits will be phased out - people getting them are being reviewed under ESA rules, between April 2011 & March 2014. Find out more in our Patients Section Welfare Reform page & read the patient story about a review.
Don't Forget Your Flu Jab!
It's that time of year again! Flu can have a potentially serious effect when you have CF so it's important to protect yourself against it. If you haven't had your flu jab yet, now's the time to book an appointment with your GP and arrange to get it. As with all vaccinations, please remember that it's essential to ONLY have it when you are feeling well.
Graduate Greats!
Congratulations to all our recent graduates! Read about their success in our Patient Stories section. If YOU have recently finished your university course and are graduating/ have just graduated, we'd like to hear from you, too! We'd love to include your photos and achievements, to share in your celebrations and inspire others!
Inpatient Blood Sugar Monitoring
Are you being admitted to Ward 26? If you want to monitor your blood sugars while you are an inpatient, you will need to bring your own blood testing equipment, including blood testing strips and lancets, as we are unable to supply you with different blood testing strips while you are on the ward.
ATTENTION! Apidra shortage!
There is a shortage of 3ml apidra cartridges and apidra solarstar until March 2012. If you know that you will run out of apidra before this time, you will need to contact the Diabetes Specialist Nurse ASAP to change to a similar profile of quick acting insulin.
THERAPISTS GO MOBILE!
If you would like to contact the physiotherapists or dietitians you can now call them on the following numbers:
physiotherapists - 07772 137613
dietitians - 07794 375776
Have you got a tale to tell?
Have you a story about yourself that's worth sharing with other patients? Any experiences, good or bad, glad or sad, that might be interesting or useful for others to hear about? Any achievements, celebrations, holidays, special events or just tough times you've got through and learned a lot? We'd love to hear from you - the website needs you!
Physiotherapists: A message for inpatients
If you are being admitted to ward 26, please bring your nebuliser and all your physiotherapy equipment with you. It would also be very useful to bring some trainers or flat shoes for exercising with the physiotherapist. So please, before you leave home, when you're packing that bag, think physio and make sure you come well prepared.
Are you planning a fundraising event?
If you're organising an event to raise funds for our CF Centre at Heartlands, please tell us all about it so we can help to promote it for you on the website. Spread the word about what you're planning - that extra publicity may help to ensure that you get that extra bit of support!
URGENT: Return of Tobramycin Pumps!
Please, please, please can we remind you to return tobramycin pumps as soon as you finish your IV antibiotics. Many pumps aren't being returned. Please check if you have a pump at home & return it as soon as you can. We often have no pumps in stock, causing delays for other patients due to start treatment. Until pumps are returned we cannot offer them home IV tobramycin!
Congratulations to Dr Rifat Rashid
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Rifat Rashid as consultant in CF and respiratory medicine at Heartlands Hospital. Dr Rashid will take up her post at the beginning of April 2012. Many of you will have met Dr Rashid while she has been CF registrar, CF fellow and acting CF consultant at our centre over the last couple of years. I am sure that you will welcome her appointment and agree that she is a great addition to the CF team. We are all really looking forward to her taking up post.
WELCOME TO OUR WEBSITE!
This site is for everyone at the Adult CF Centre in Birmingham Heartlands Hospital. It has details of our facilities, our clinics and who's who in the CF team. In the Patients section, read about transition from paediatrics or if you're new to the unit, find out what to expect as an outpatient or in-patient. We have stories from other patients, practical information about useful resources and factsheets to download. We are constantly developing our service so if you'd like to help raise funds, we explain how to donate to our centre.
Get involved!
Remember.... your Website needs you!
This is YOUR website! It's been created with the help of patients here so if there's anything that YOU would like to see in it, any ideas about how to improve it, please let us know. YOUR comments and suggestions are most welcome - the more patient input, the better it will be!
We're really keen to get even more of you to contribute, so please keep sending us your stories, photos and videos of special events, celebrations and holidays. Contributions to our newsletter, would also be most welcome! It's produced twice a year - if you've anything that you'd like to have included, please let us know.
We're also looking for a group of patients to take part in a focus group to discuss developing a new information pack for to help younger patients through their transition from paediatric to adult CF care. In addition, we would welcome your views on the clinic touchscreen. It's an interactive information point - you may or may not have noticed it in the corner of clinic! We'd like to find out what information you would find helpful to include on it.
