The District Nursing Service

The team
Availability
Our role
Prescriptions
Nursing equipment / aids
Contact us
Feedback
Useful telephone numbers 
(of other services)

theteam

District nursing team

District nurses
      Lynne Dargie BA (Hons), RGN, NDNCert, CPT 
      Johanne Morgan BA (Hons), RGN

Community staff nurse               Diane McCartney, SEN
Community nursing auxiliary      Janet Collis 
availability

Availability

Sonning Common Health Centre

Monday – Friday:   8.30 am – 4.30 pm (0118) 9722188
Saturday / Sunday 8.30  am– 4.30 pm  (0118) 9722188

On call district nurse contacted via Oxdoc           (01244) 355175
 role

Our role

Welcome to the Sonning Common Health Centre District Nursing Team
What is our role?

Our role is to assess the health needs of people who are housebound and plan a programme of care to meet those needs. 

Employed by South-East Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust, we work both independently and collaboratively with the Primary Health Care Team at Sonning Common Health Centre. Our office is within the Health Centre. Liaising with statutory and voluntary agencies such as social services, specialist resources and associations, is also a very important part of our work.

A patient is deemed to be housebound when they are unable to leave their home environment through a physical or psychological illness. A patient is not considered housebound if he or she is able to leave their home with minimal assistance. For example unassisted / assisted visits to the doctor, dentist, hairdresser, supermarket, social events. Patients requiring transport can contact the FISH voluntary agency or taxi services. The Scope bus also runs a weekly service to and from Binfield Heath. 

As well as providing professional support, skilled nursing care, health education and advice to patients, relatives and carers, we also teach undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students, health care assistants and medical students. 
prescriptions

Prescriptions 

If we are visiting you for a nursing need and you have no friend / neighbour / relative/ carer to fetch a prescription from the chemist for you, we may deliver it to you on a planned visit. However, this is not something we can routinely undertake, due to our workload commitments. An alternative is to contact FISH or Age Concern (telephone numbers below). 
aids

Nursing equipment / aids

Should nursing equipment / aids be delivered to you, unless you are instructed that they are the property of the district nurses, please do not return them to the Health Centre. There should be a label on the equipment with a telephone number on it for either Huntleigh Nesbitt Evans or medical loans. Please phone them directly for collection. If equipment was obtained from any hospital it should be returned there. 
contact

How can you contact us? 

Should you wish to speak to one of us in person, we would normally be available in the office between 8.30 am – 9 am and 12.30 pm – 1 p.m. At other times, if we are not available you can leave a message with the Health Centre reception on (0118) 722188. The reception phone is however switched off from 1pm - 2 p.m . We will respond to your call as soon as we are able to do so. 

As district nurses we are not an emergency service.  However, if you have an urgent nursing problem which cannot wait until the following day, the receptionist will endeavour to contact us via our pager system. 

Should you come into reception wishing to see a district nurse, we may not always be immediately available and you may be asked to make an appointment.

Our normal working day is 8.30 am – 4.30 pm and messages left after 4 pm will not normally be dealt with until the following working day. 

At weekends and bank holidays we operate an on-call district nursing system for urgent calls. Please contact OXDOC on (01244) 355175. The duty nurse may not be from this practice and covers Sonning Common, Woodcote and Goring . The nurse on duty will endeavour to respond to your call as soon as s/he is available. H however, they will be dealing with other calls and weekends can be busy. 
feedback

Feedback

As a team, we are committed to improving and developing our service and if you wish to pass on any comments or complaints regarding your care, please do not hesitate to discuss this with any member of the team, either during your visit or by contacting us.

We are very grateful to Sonning Common Community Care Fund who provide the district nursing team with equipment to improve patient care. Should you wish to make any donations to this valuable local resource, the fund secretary is Mrs Joan Thorne  (0118) 9723383.
phonenumbers

Other useful telephone numbers

Age Concern Flexible Care Service 0800 009966
Battle Hospital (Reading) (0118) 9583666
Benefit’s Agency (0118) 9524400
Carson’s chemist (0118) 9722306
Citizens Advice Bureau (01491) 578267
FISH Voluntary Centre 
(for help and transport)(
(0118) 9723986
NHS Direct ( 24 hr help line) (0845) 4647
Oxford Social Services headquarters 
( Assessment Team)
(01235) 554425
Red Cross medical loans (0118) 9722877
Royal Berkshire Hospital  (Reading) (0118) 9875111
South-East Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust Headquarters (01491) 208570
Sue Ryder Care Home (Nettlebed) (01491) 641384
Townlands Hospital (Henley) (01491) 572544


Private nursing care services and help

Age Concern “Phone Link” Service (01865) 240619
Gardeners Nursing Agency (0118) 9476666
Home Farm Foods Meals Service (0800) 032 6070 
In – House Care (01491) 614888
Premier Care (01491) 411144
Redland Hygiene Ltd 
(equipment and continence aids)
(0118) 9580055
Rose’s Care Agency (0118) 9599950
Wiltshire Farm Foods Home Meals Service (01635) 231119





© 2003 Sonning Common Health Centre