News

New multi-disciplinary foot care service

On Friday 18 August the new multi-disciplinary diabetic foot care service opened at Darent Valley Hospital. The service brings together specialist clinicians including a Podiatrist, Diabetic Consultant and Vascular Surgeon who meet with patients to discuss their care collaboratively. Prior to the introduction of this service patients were seen by these specialists at different times, at multiple appointments. This not only meant extra travel for patients but it also made it difficult for clinicians to communicate with each other in order to reach a conclusion about a patient’s treatment plan.

Although the service has only recently opened patients are already benefiting from the changes. Paul from Dartford attended the third appointment of the day and says:

“I’m really pleased this service is available at Darent Valley Hospital because it saves me struggling to travel to St Thomas’"

The Vanguard team will be monitoring the results of the service and collecting patient feedback to ensure the changes are working well. There are also plans to expand the service to other vascular conditions in the future.  

Meet our Vascular Pathway Co-ordinator

We are delighted to welcome Raymonde Nutakor, who joined the Vanguard team on 1 August as our new Vascular Pathway Co-ordinator.

Raymonde will be overseeing the smooth running of the vascular patient pathway, ensuring that each patient is seen within the 18 week target deadline. She will be keeping track of patients between both Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and making sure clinicians at both trusts have access to the correct information when patients attend appointments. This will prevent patients having to tell their story multiple times, which we know can be frustrating. She will also be ensuring that any necessary follow-up appointments happen locally so that patients do not have to travel to London unnecessarily.  

Raymonde has worked for the NHS for more than 20 years and brings with her a wealth of primary and secondary care experience. Her role is crucial for delivering the aims of the Vanguard programme and improvements to the vascular pathway will be reviewed regularly to ensure the changes are working.

She describes her role as:

“Putting all the pieces of the jigsaw together – ensuring patients receive the highest quality of care and that everyone is kept well informed between appointments.”