Health Foundation award holder Jane Cumming has been appointed the first lead consultant physiotherapist for prosthetics in the NHS at South Tees NHS Trust.
Jane was awarded a ‘leading practice through research award’ three years ago which allowed her to devote half her time for two and a half years to developing research expertise and leadership development. This research led to her new appointment.
During her award, Jane chose to focus on older people who had been amputated above the knee and were using a prosthetic leg called a transfemoral prosthesis. Through her research Jane was able to make changes in prosthetic service provision towards a more flexible patient centred service based on best evidence. Workforce plans were also developed to provide an alternative skills mix including an extended role for physiotherapists. Following the success of this service design, momentum built for the creation of her role.
‘Leadership development was integral to the overall aspirations of my Health Foundation award to develop an evidence-based high quality service for prosthetic users locally’ says Jane.
By focussing on this, Jane developed the role of consultant physiotherapist by widening and strengthening her skills base and leadership skills. Producing alternative, more efficient and effective workforce plans to manage this important group of clients within the changing NHS was timely as the service moved towards more sophisticated contracting arrangements within the prosthetic service and payment by results in the NHS.
The changes in the service have also been reflected in changes to staff morale and effectiveness. Jane’s prosthetic services team, supported by the neurosciences division, was also short listed for a trust excellence in innovation award. “Team members are enjoying new ways of working and increased autonomy in practice, says Jane. ‘We have recently run a patient satisfaction survey (now being analysed), but to date we have experienced mainly positive feedback.’