Newsletter
Extracts from the March 2008 Newsletter
Opening Words from the Chairperson
Osteoporosis Study Day
Our February 2008 Osteoporosis Study Day was a success.
Hi Everyone.
Good news - Spring is in the air! Bulbs are springing up and mornings and evenings are getting lighter. This must make us all feel better.
Roll on Summer - that is if we get one this year. I hope to hold another coffee morning this year. The date will be confirmed in the next Newsletter, so start collecting any books and plants for a stall.
By the time this Newsletter goes out my husband, John, should have had his hip operation and hopefully will soon be on the road to recovery. We wish him all the best.
John helps me, and the group, in so many ways and we will miss him while he is out of action.
Lastly, I have to mention, on a sad note, we have lost one of our members, Sylvia Grice in December 2007. Our thoughts go out to Tom and his family and we hope Tom will soon be back with us.
Best wishes.
From our Chairperson, Jill Fysh
Just a reminder…
Ros Harre has been able to book Annie Hartwright to come to talk to us about Sugar and Spice in May 2008.
This is a talk given on behalf of Billington’s and Allinson. Everybody is promised a free goodie-bag but the talk is only free to groups of 50 or more.
We need you all to come yourselves and cajole your friends to attend as well to swell our numbers.
Some of you will remember Annie. She used to be our NOS Regional Co-ordinator, updating us on progress at NOS and giving wonderful cookery demonstrations. She managed to cook a two-course dinner in a microwave, bringing all the ingredients, equipment, including the 2 microwaves with her and then putting the dishes into the raffle.
Knowing Annie, she will make this a fun evening - don’t miss it.
Groups & Volunteers Forum
I attended this meeting in Birmingham on 10th January. As you know I am there, representing the views of Groups in the East of England. Unfortunately, I had no comments to pass on, so I need to work harder at linking with other support groups and taking their views forward. Although costs are kept to a minimum, the value in having these meetings is in bringing compliments, concerns and ideas to head office staff and taking back information from them.
Both the Members Forum and the Groups Forum are being reviewed by Angela Jordan, NOS Operations Director, and it would be a shame if this arena for discussion were lost due to lack of support.
Having discussed my concerns with your committee, I have been given a few ideas and will report back to you in the next issue as to how successful I have been in generating feedback.
Name change and logo
Osteoporosis UK and a slight change of logo have been suggested. The final decision on whether to take this forward and the timescale for its completion will be made this February. So this too, I will report on next time.
Leaflets and posters
Groups have asked that these have a date of issue, to make sure current information is being distributed. Also it was suggested there needs to be a specially designed pack for professional members. This, including costs and what they receive, is about to be reviewed. The NOS website will also be updated this year. All this work is in order to give a younger image to the publicity provided.
MOSS (Mobile Osteoporosis Scanning Service)
£3 million had been given by Mark Master Masons but when NHS providers had been asked to bid for some of this money to enhance or provide new osteoporosis services requests for £21 million were received. So far Cheshire and Plymouth have been successful. None for our area.
New Development Managers (DMs)
We have a replacement for Andi Marsh, covering Eastern England, London and the South East. She is Louise Sullivan, who started with NOS at the beginning of January. She will be coming to meet everybody on 28th February, first at the Study Day and then to our Group Meeting in the evening. There is also an extra DM for Central England, Caroline Johnson. DMs provide a very useful support for Groups particularly if there are any problems but they do have vast areas to cover.
Laura Hobbs - Events & Community Fundraiser
New to NOS but although young and enthusiastic, Laura Hobbs - Events & Community Fundraiser - has already spent three and a half years working within the charity and events sector and she will be able to help us with any large fundraising events we wish to organise.
The Big Bone Walk is one of the events she will be coordinating nationally. We too will be looking to arrange something to link in with this later in the year.
Edith Finbow
Norfolk Primary Care Trust’s Proposed Vision and Priorities 2008 - 2011
The proposals in this document set out 10 aspirations (ambitions) for the Norfolk PCT under three broad themes of ‘Excellent Health’, ‘Outstanding Care’, and ‘Best Value’.
Our Osteoporosis Group has been asked to give their views on this vision
. The closing date for doing so was 29th February 2008.
The aspirations are:
- Reducing Health inequalities
- Enabling people to live longer, healthier lives
- Working with partners on wider issues that contribute to excellent health
- Building services around the individual person’s need with a focus on older people and people living with long term conditions
- Providing good quality, safe, effective and efficient services with a focus on Mental Health (adult and child and adolescent), Prison Health (including transition once released) and National Priorities e.g. reductions in hospital acquired infection
- Providing right care, right time, right professional - focusing on moving appropriate care from acute hospitals to primary/community care
- Ensuring people are treated with dignity and respect throughout their lives with a focus on, End of Life, Birth, Learning Difficulties and Vulnerable patients including hospital in-patients
- Making efficient and cost-effective flexible use of resources based upon patient need and evidence, reviewing the need for services and how much we spend on them, investing now to make savings in the future, and fostering a culture of investigation and sharing of best practice
- Ensuring transparency of decision-making about how we use our resources
- Holding providers of healthcare to account for effective use of resources.
Under Aspiration 2d we see: Targeting Osteoporosis and helping to prevent falls and fractured bones.
Our comments
We have, of course, commented. On this point we asked how this would be targeted in West Norfolk where at present there is no co-ordinated service for people with or at risk of osteoporosis. We suggested, since travelling is difficult and painful for those with osteoporosis, that there should be a local service, possibly based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. We also enquired as to the proposed timescale for bringing services in the West of the County up to the level of those in Norwich.
If anyone would like to see the full document, contact the Secretary. You can download Norfolk PCT’s Proposed Vision and Priorities 2008 - 2011 (PDF, 1.6 MB) from the Norfolk PCT’s website (you’ll need the Adobe PDF Reader to open it).
National Falls Awareness Day
This event arranged by Help the Aged to be held this year on 24th June is something we very often link into with displays at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn.
The event is increasingly successful, with 2007 seeing 524 events across the UK and abroad - double the number held in 2005.
Information and packs are available on the Help the Aged website if anyone would like to arrange their own event.
Publications
Members of NOS will know the Society produces a number of very helpful books at reduced cost to members, e.g. Healthy Eating for Strong Bones, Exercise and Osteoporosis, and more. At present we have a limited number of three of these titles that we can pass on to anybody interested in receiving a copy:
- Osteoporosis in Men
- Coping with a Broken Hip
- Living with Osteoporosis
Forthcoming Fund-raising Events
See our Diary Dates for a comprehensive list.
All group meetings are held at the London Road Methodist Hall, County Court Road, King’s Lynn, and start at 7.30 PM, unless otherwise stated (map and directions). Everyone is welcome. Entry is free for members, and costs £1.50 for visitors.
Recent Group Events
Our Social | November 2007
This year, for the first time, we held our Social before Christmas, rather than after. As explained before, this is because the Group is changing the accounting year to be the same as the National Osteoporosis Society, that is, with the calendar year. Next year’s AGM will be in January and your membership subscriptions will be due then.
As usual, we very much enjoyed the buffet - thanks to all of you who give food for this. Every year we are amazed by the amount and variety. Cantabile came to sing for us. Lovely to hear their young voices again! The choir seems to be going from strength to strength. We heard there are possible plans to sing in Russia this year.
One thing we had not considered was the distribution of newsletters. These are given out at the November meeting. Indeed, they were this year. We do not charge an entry fee at the Social, obviously, as it is our way of thanking people for their support over the year but that means we don’t really know who is there and who is not. Those members who are not able to attend the meetings usually have their newsletter posted on to them. Several members have not received their last issue. If anybody would still like a copy contact Ken, or Edie and we will be happy to send you a copy.
Sandringham, 1850 - 1950 | January 2008
David Grimes came to talk to us again. He is a very interesting speaker on local history and a great many members attended to hear him.
This time he was talking about Sandringham, 1850 - 1950. He, his parents and grandparents had lived and worked on the Estate and he illustrated his talk with many slides of photographs and postcards.
Sandringham House and estate was bought as a private retreat for Edward, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Queen Victoria, before he married Princess Alexandra and before he became King Edward VII.
There have been very many changes to the house and grounds and some of these Mr Grimes was able to show members. For instance, the ornamental lake had stood in front of the house but this was moved further south, excavated by hand of course, and now there are two lakes in a natural setting as we see them today.
David Grimes’ talk was a very personal account of his memories of the changes happening over the years to the estate. This covers Sandringham, West Newton, Flitcham, part of Dersingham, Babingly and Wolferton. The Estate had its own Gas Works, village pumps, church, halls and school as well as estate houses and cottages.
A fascinating talk! If anybody has any memorabilia, postcards or photographs relating to Sandringham or the local area, David Grimes is the man who would be interested. He admits to being an ardent collector.
