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AGM REPORTS

Chairman's Speech AGM 2007

I would like to welcome everyone to the 2007 Lawrence Home Nursing Team AGM. After the very happy celebrations of Jane Phillip’s MBE at last year’s AGM we have had a steady and successful twelve months.

Community based palliative care continues to develop and for the first time this year it has been identified as a new indicator within GP’s Quality and Outcomes Framework. This requires all practices to identify and keep a clear register of all terminally ill patients under their care at any time. This is a few steps behind the “Gold Standards” framework set up nationally some years ago which has been fully implemented locally by all the practices. Our ability to embrace and achieve this has been in no small part due to the existence of the Lawrence Home Nursing Team which is a vital element in ensuring that we are delivering nationally recognised best practice in all areas of terminal care. We are very pleased to announce that we have made an important increase in the geographical area that we cover to ensure that almost all patients covered by Charlbury Surgery can now access our services. This is particularly important because at the boundaries to other parts of our patch there was cover from other palliative care nursing organisations. We now feel this has strengthened our ability to respond to any need when it is required.

Furthermore this year we have developed and deepened our links with the other local organisations offering palliative nursing care. On 7^th December Jenny Nolan and myself attended a meeting of Chairpersons and Nursing Coordinators of all our neighbouring (…as the minutes touchingly named us!) “Sister Charities” in Fairford, Shipston, Stow on the Wold and Chipping Campden. It was a very useful evening sharing experience and best practice as well as offering support to one another. This will hopefully continue on at least an annual basis but encouragingly this has brought us all closer together and will be a strength and a support to our day to day activities.

We are also delighted that Katharine House set up a shop in Chipping Norton this spring and I was very pleased to be invited to its opening. Although we are separate organisations Katharine House remains pivotal in the provision of palliative care services in our area. We are fully supportive and warmly welcome the closer links their presence in the town will bring. They are already a key source of training and are an invaluable resource in so many other ways. We look forward to developing even closer cooperation and working relationships in the future. This will be vital in their wish to set up a similar community based terminal care service in the Banbury area in the next few years.

We were very grateful to David Cameron, our new patron, for sparing the time to attend our Carol Service at the Town Hall which again was a very happy occasion. I am grateful too for the great many people who have organised events on our behalf this year and the tremendous time and effort spent in fund raising. We hugely appreciate all our supporters do for us. I would like to make special mention of Nigel Moxley who not only designed a very unique set of Christmas cards but also gives us invaluable help in the maintenance, updating and recent redesign of our website.

I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to several of our most loyal supporters this year.  Ronald Speirs has continued to be very energetic since retiring as a Trustee. It was with greatest sadness that his wife Jean died in Katharine House after a short illness. Both Jean and Ronald devoted so much to the setting up of our service and he remains very much in our thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.

George and Pam Hummer have been amongst our most active supporters, fundraising by opening their garden over the years. George had a long and difficult illness and I was so pleased that the Lawrence Home Nursing Team could be of help. We thank Pam for all her support and cherish her continued friendship in the future.

Jenny Nolan and her team of nurses remain the key to our success. Their service is as strong as ever and I regularly receive letters of thanks and praise for the exceptional care that they provide. Although we remain committed to constantly reviewing and incorporating developments into our work (for example we have been supportive of the foundation of a Primary Bereavement Service set up in Banbury this year), our key objective remains that we are always in a position to respond to any need as quickly as possible and that we can offer the best possible service to patients choosing to die in their own homes.

I am off on a Sabbatical for 10 weeks starting next week. I look forward to coming back refreshed to continue this vital work. My thanks, as always, to all of you, for all your support.  

Dr. Jonathan Moore

Chairman's Speech AGM 2006

Last year I was exceptionally fortunate to spend nearly a year with the Lawrence Family. It was an incredibly happy time for me. On the evening of writing last years speech I returned home to find that Anette had left the Katherine House Annual Report for me to read. The article by Bernadette Ross was so poignant and moving that I almost decided to rewrite my speech there and then!! But after a years reflection it still so eloquently sums up all that is so vital to us in Palliative Care.

She wrote:

"It is not easy to write reports such as these; for one can appear to be caught in action or bureaucracy. Yet this is the arena where "life is larger than language", where humanity meets itself in its fullness. Good nursing is so much more than procedural action, nowhere more so than in hospice care, where vulnerability and fatigue need the comfort and support of fellow human beings. It is a great privilege to be invited into the lives of our patients and families at such a fragile time. It is our desire to assure them that we will travel the journey with them and in so doing attempt to demonstrate that there is always something else that we can do to help."

Such clear and excellent words are such an inspiration to us; reminding us of the importance of our work and the difference it can make.

Again this year, this has been made possible by the excellent team of nurses who remain strong and enthusiastic. Jenny Nolan continues to head our team with great leadership and professionalism. We have again passed our inspection with a great deal of praise for the way in which we are organised. However beyond this we get a great deal of very deep and sincere thanks from relatives and friends of our patients for the exceptional work of the nurses who I believe aspire so closely to the ideals set out by Bernadette Ross.

Beyond this we have had a successful year in a wider sense. Last Autumn a group of Trustees decided that we should revamp and revitalise our news letter. The finished article was a great deal more ambitious than I had expected. It has been a great success and an excellent means of better promoting and communicating with our supporters and friends. I would like to thank all involved for their foresight and for all the work they put in. It is set to be an annual feature of our organisation.
 

Sadly this year we saw the death of our much loved patron Ronnie Barker. I was humbled and pleased that the LHNT were able to provide him with some support and care in his final illness. His wife and family have been very generous and kind following his death and it was a huge honour to represent us at his memorial service in Westminster Abbey in March. Ronnie was a very private man but he would regularly send us notes of support and we always felt that we were very close to his heart.
 

Finding a replacement was never going to be easy. We are fortunate as we have the support of a variety of local celebrities. As trustees we were keen to find a patron who had previously shown us genuine interest. After a vote as complex as any Tory leadership election it was David Cameron who came out top. It is fitting that both David and Ronnie lived in Dean. David has been a great support ever since moving here in 2001 and has consistently helped us in so many ways. Several years ago he did the local Tyte Inn Bike ride for us and has since always done whatever he can. He has kindly agreed to come to the Service of Carols and Remembrance Event in December.
 

We were all hugely delighted for the MBE awarded to Jane Phillips in the New Years Honours List. It is a fantastic achievement for Jane and richly acknowledges the immense contribution she has made to so many aspects of life in Chipping Norton. She never seeks any recognition but all of us admire and respect so much all that she does. I hope as many of you as possible can join us to have a celebration following this meeting.
 

I would finally like to thank very warmly all who do so much to Fundraise for us. Again this year I am amazed and humbled by the range and ingenuity of the local people to raise money on our behalf. Much is very time consuming and I'm aware that many people do an enormous amount to support our work. I would like to very sincerely thank you all for all your help and contribution to our work. All fundraising is important and it is a much appreciated personal statement of support that you choose to
do it for us.
 

My best wishes and thanks for another successful year.
 

Dr. Jonathan Moore