To contact Community Nursing Services in hours
Monday to Friday 8.30am to 6.00pm - call the Belford Medical Practice on 01668 213738
Out of Hours Contact Number:
Monday to Sunday 5pm-11pm and All Day on Weekends and Bank Holidays ring: 0191 2932580
or
Between the hours of 11pm and 8:30am please call the switchboard on: 0344 811811
Who will put you through to the district nurse on call
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provided District Nursing and Community Matron services to residents of Northumberland and North Tyneside. These services are mainly for those people who are unable to leave their house (unless via ambulance) in order to access healthcare, this may be related to longstanding health issues or may be temporary as a result of an acute illness. Services are also provided within GP practices, to provide wound care clinics, continence clinics or ear care for example.
District Nursing services cover a wide area of health problems, this can be around drug administration where specific skills are needed (i.e. injections) where a person is not able to do this for themselves, routine health screening and blood tests. Wound care - either chronic wounds or after a person returns home after an operation. Supportive care for patients undergoing treatment for serious illness such as cancer. Palliative and end of life care for those people who wish to die at home.
Community Matron services are focused on supporting people with long-term health conditions. The service covers a broad range of conditions and aims to provide intensive support to people in order to keep them well and to enable them to maximise their health in order to enable them to have the best quality of life.
Catherine Birdsall Community Matron
Kathleen Jones Community Staff Nurse
Linda Sisterson Community Healthcare Assistant
An important part of the service is to educate people to take control of their own health and manage their symptoms to ensure the treatments deliver the full benefit. Being at home in familiar surroundings is often the best place for people who have long term health problems and therefore one of the main aims for Community Matrons is to prevent admission to hospital where this is possible.
Both District Nurses and Community Matrons work alongside other agencies who may be involved in providing care and support, this may be Social Workers, MacMillan and Marie Curie Services, Home Care Agencies, General Practitioners (GP's) or Hospital Consultants and Specialist Nurses.
Community Nursing Services are aligned to the GP practice. This means that should you require on-going care you should routinely be seen by the same team of nurses. However there may be times, particularly at weekends and holidays where you may be seen by a Nurse who is based within a different team.