How I came to work at St Mary’s - Part Three

In the previous instalment I talked about how we set up our inpatient foot service and some of the initial teething troubles.  In this instalment I talk more about the initiatives we set up and how the service suffered due to a lack of funding.

We soon realised, that between the two of us, we were unable to see all the patients on all the wards. 

We used our initiative and decided the best way to conquer this was to teach the healthcare staff on how to help us and cut simple toe nails themselves. We started this by designing a simple PowerPoint presentation, selling this half day course to the nurses and ward managers. 

It was considered as a new skill, thereby upskilling the HCAs to new set of skills. This certainly tested our powers of persuasion to encourage the HCAs on learning a new task. We ensured that they were monitored on a regular basis and they also knew how to contact us if they had any problems. 

The specialists’ clinic almost seemed much easier to access and we started working in them effortlessly without having to negotiate any logistics and they were very happy to have us in their team. 

Both teams has a multi-disciplinary team setting. We started by shadowing the consultant or registrar or specialist physiotherapist, offering our own input to benefit the patients. In a sense we were trying to prove that we were an extra asset to the team.

The service was a success, but like all good things in the NHS, it came to an end due lack of funding in 2013. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my job and was satisfied with the outcomes we were producing and I was not ready to let this go. 

At this point, I wrote to all the nurses, registrars, consultants and therapists that we had built a relationship with, to try and urge them to alter the minds of the powers at be. I also gave them all the data to show how important we were to them. It was a huge task, and we finally succeeded in February 2014, with the proviso that the same 2 podiatrists work across Charing Cross Hospital, Hammersmith Hospital as well as St Mary’s. 

It felt like a big rollercoaster ride, joyous but worried how we could cope. Before we could rejoice for a moment longer, we were given notice the very next day that the service would only be funded for a further year to February 2015. At the same time, the seconded Diabetes Podiatry Team had been taken as an In-House service into the Trust. It was devastating and a deflating time. The Inpatient Podiatry team was left out of the consultation. I could never express my severe disappointment.

It was also agreed that the Diabetes team would cover the Inpatient Service and the specialists’ clinic covered by my colleague and myself. This included the Fall’s Clinic and the Foot & Ankle Orthopaedic Clinic which they initially agreed to do, but when it came to the crunch time, they could not cope. It appeared that on Wednesday, the diabetes clinic had their MDT clinic with the Diabetic Consultant and both of our clinics were also held on a Wednesday and that none of the diabetes team would be happy to leave their most interesting day! It seemed that the odds were in our favour and someone up there was looking out for us.

It turned that the diabetes team had to advertise the job that I had created for one day per week! Nobody was interested to come in and work for just one day. As you can imagine this was joy to my ears and I quit my full time job at CLCH, where I had returned when the service was ended in 2015, and applied to St Mary’s Hospital to work only one day a week in the two clinics. I think you can see my love for the specialists’ clinic. My manager at CLCH thought I was insane but was happy to accept my resignation.

My interview was scene from a carry on film, as I was being interviewed by the Diabetes Lead and the Business Service Manager, who had no clue about the job I had created in the first place.

The rest is history, and to this day I am still doing my one day a week for the NHS, in these specialist clinics. I can say that I still thoroughly enjoy my work and have expanded my skill set. I can’t explain how I feel on a Wednesday. 

I wake up with a skip in my step. I never know what each Wednesday will be like.