Ten Years, one global pandemic You are here: Home » News Detail
17th August 2020
Covid-19 has meant that many people have had to celebrate their birthdays differently this year. Local health service provider, Your Healthcare, is no exception. Formally part of NHS Kingston, the social enterprise has this week been commemorating a decade of providing health and social care services to residents of Kingston and Richmond since 1 August 2010. Despite appointments with over 144,000 local residents and over 373,000 referrals from GPs, hospitals, social services and other agencies over the past 10 years, few people will have even heard of the organisation.
“We’ve been very much under the radar,’ said Managing Director, Ed Montgomery, “even though you may well have used our services or know someone who has.”
These services have included providing crucial help to those in need during lockdown. Lindsay Forbes is a community staff nurse who came out of retirement in response to the coronavirus pandemic, wanting to help her former colleagues with her valuable skills as a trained nurse. “I was anxious about the risk of passing Covid-19 on to my husband and family but was reassured by the PPE and professional approach of the service. It was great to be back with the team and the patients. I was impressed by how cheerfully, innovatively and professionally work carried on under very challenging conditions, with patients’ wellbeing at the core.”
“Many in our team have been run off their feet over the past few months, supporting residents in their homes and in clinics,” said Mr Montgomery. “I’m very proud of the way they’ve responded with commitment and humour. Our anniversary is a good opportunity to say ‘thank you’.”
He added, “Never would we have expected to have our tenth anniversary in the midst of a global pandemic. We haven’t been able to celebrate in exactly the way we would have liked, but even though we’ve had to be socially distanced, we didn’t lose our sense of humour or camaraderie. And of course, there was cake.”
Attached photo: Managing Director Ed Montgomery cutting the birthday cake. (In order to adhere to social distancing Managing Director, Ed Montgomery had to stream his speech and cake cutting. Team members then collected their cake and lunch in small socially distanced groups.)