SCA Group

Former Junior Health Minister Baroness Julia Cumberlege visited the Fenwick2 Health and Wellbeing Centre, Lyndhurst, this week and said the centre deserved to be a showcase for the rest of the country.

Baroness Cumberlege met Fenwick2 and SCA Group staff and supporters of the Fenwick League of Friends on the visit on Tuesday 17 November 2009. She praised the centre for its innovation in providing services and its responsiveness to the health needs of the local community.

Baroness Cumberlege was inspired to visit the centre by her husband Patrick Cumberlege, the great grandson of George Fenwick, a local benefactor who built the original Fenwick Hospital as a gift to the people of Lyndhurst in 1908.

Mr Cumberlege visited Fenwick2 in July 2009 to unveil a plaque dedicated to his great grandfather and said at the time that he had happy memories of visiting the New Forest on holiday as a boy.

Baroness Cumberlege, who lives in Sussex, described her career working in the health sector and said she was keen to keep in touch with new developments. She said her husband had been very complimentary about Fenwick2 and that she had wanted to come and see the centre for herself.

"This wonderful health and well-being centre is so well placed to provide the services that people want," she said. "Much of what the centre is doing already is so different and original and is involving partners in such a constructive way that the future is yours."

The Baroness was particularly impressed with services such as the assessment project for people with early stage dementia, the Phoenix social club for isolated older people and the exercise referral classes for people suffering from heart disease, stroke and Parkinson's disease, run in association with New Forest District Council.

She singled out the bathing service for special praise, however. This allows people who have difficulty bathing due to disability or lack of mobility to use an hydraulic assisted bath once a fortnight at the centre with the help of a trained nurse volunteer.  (L-R) Angela Jeffrey, SCA Group Board member; Lisa Dillane, Fenwick2 Co-ordinator; Baroness Julia Cumberlege; Cllr Maureen Holding, Portfolio Holder for Health and Well-being, New Forest District Council; George Dibben, Chair of the Fenwick League of Friends.

"The bathing service caught my imagination," she said. "We live in a cottage but have an enormous bath which we are addicted to. When I heard that you were offering the assisted bathing service and that the first person to use it had not been able to have a bath for two years, I was both moved and impressed. It's a small service but a wonderful one."

A big 'well done' goes to Ken Midgley and Martin Mitchell of our Waterlooville Care Team for passing their Level 2 NVQ Health and Social Care training recently.

Good luck to all those staff about to start or currently working on their NVQs and well done to those who have recently passed.

Want to know more about training on offer at SCA?  Speak to your line manager or view a list of Quinn Centre courses here.