Caring for Cornwall

The REACH Cornwall team turned the Conference and Training Centre at Haven House (part of Truro and Penwith College) into Santa’s grotto last week packing up over 100 boxes with blood pressure monitors for distribution to social care providers across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 

 The monitors were given to NHS Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group (KCCG) by NHS England and South West Cardiovascular Network. REACH Cornwall (part of the ESF Business Clusters project) work with organisations in the social care, health care and early years sectors to ascertain training needs and develop funded, pilot training opportunities to meet those needs. Over the last three years the team have forged close working partnerships and were delighted to assist when approached by NHS KCCG.  

Industry standard blood pressure monitors are on their way to all Cornish nursing homes as well as other social care providers who have undertaken relevant training with REACH Cornwall including in the award-winning RESTORE2 tool. RESTORE2 aims to support care and nursing homes to recognise, assess and respond appropriately to residents with deteriorating health in a timely, effective way. Obtaining and recording accurate physiological measurements including blood pressure is key to this and so having sufficient, reliable equipment such as blood pressure monitors available is vital. 

 A point underlined by Julie Cherry, Project Co-ordinator for REACH Cornwall,  

 “We have been thrilled to receive some fantastic feedback for the workshops and webinars we have developed over the last three years. The ultimate accolade though was to learn that the RESTORE2 training we delivered directly helped save the lives of two residents in a Cornish care home. We hope that these blood pressure monitors will contribute to saving and enhancing the lives of even more people.” 

 At a time when good news stories seem few and far between, REACH Cornwall are asking those receiving the monitors to share photos of them on social media using the hashtags #CaringforCornwall and #BPMonitors4Care to celebrate something positive.