Community nurses
Our team of district (or community) nurses will visit patients who are confined to their home and require nursing assistance. Requests for home visits by a district nurse can be arranged through a member of the practice’s reception team or by a doctor.
Enquiries about district nursing matters can also be made by directly contacting the district nursing team on 0161 529 6210. If the district nurses are unavailable to take a call, a voicemail facility is available to record a message.
District nurses play a crucial role in the primary health care team. They visit people in their own homes or in residential care homes, providing care for patients and supporting family members.
As well as providing direct patient care, district nurses also have a teaching role, working with patients to enable them to care for themselves or with family members teaching them how to give care to their relatives.
District nurses play a vital role in keeping hospital admissions and re-admissions to a minimum and ensuring that patients can return to their own homes as soon as possible.
District nurses will assess the health care needs of patients and families, monitor the quality of care they’re receiving and be professionally accountable for delivery of care. Patients seen by district nurses can be of any age, but often many of them will be elderly, while others may have been recently discharged from hospital, be terminally ill or have physical disabilities.
District nurses may be visiting patients every day or more than once a day, offering help, advice and support and often work with other groups, such as the social services, voluntary agencies and other NHS organisations and help to provide and co-ordinate a wide range of care services.
Health visitors
Our health visitors have specialist training in all aspects of childcare and development and often visit patients at home.
All children under five have a named health visitor, who is part of a team. Our health visiting team is based at Levenshulme, Sure Start Childrens Centre, Broom Lane, Levenshulme, M19 2UH and can be contacted directly by telephone on 0161 219 2958. The name and contact details of your health visitor will also be in the parent held record (red book).
The members of the team include:
- Health visitors
- Community staff nurses
- Parenting practitioners
- Healthcare support workers
They offer information, guidance and support on issues such as:
- Parenting
- Breast feeding
- Child development
- Immunisation
- Isolation and depression
- Family conflict
- Healthy eating and lifestyle
- Quitting smoking
- Pregnancy and sexual health
Most services are offered to everyone. However some children and families may need extra support to ensure that they are having their health needs met. The teams work closely with parents, supporting them in their decisions regarding the care and development of their children. They offer one to one family support and work with the family to agree the best level of input needed to support parents and carers to achieve the best health outcomes for their children. Health visitors work throughout the community to prevent ill health and to promote healthy lifestyles. In addition to working with GP surgeries, they also work with others involved in child care including early years and education providers, social care and health and voluntary organisations.