Family presents local trust with memorial portable scanner
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) Community Nursing team was proud and delighted to be presented with a portable bladder scanner from the family of the late Linda Bates.
Linda Bates, formerly of King Richard Court in East Hunsbury, Northampton received care from the Community Nursing service. Her son Graham Bates said: “the care provided to my mother by the community nursing team was invaluable but they had no scanner. It highlighted to me and my sister Gaynor how important scanning our mother’s bladder helped to diagnose a full bladder and urinary infections which we believe can have an effect on people with Dementia. Mum’s health definitely deteriorated and descended into bouts of dementia each time she contracted a bladder infection brought on by the build-up of toxins. After our mother died in May 2009, Gaynor and I wanted to do something positive to help elderly patients, therefore with donations from her friends and family and our mother’s estate, we were able to raise the money required to purchase the £8,000 portable bladder scanner.”
Graham and Gaynor presented the Trust’s community nursing team with the portable scanner at the St James’ Clinic, Northampton on Friday 2 June 2017. Graham said: “Mum, who died aged 96, might not have appreciated the word ‘bladder’ next to her name on the plaque but we hope it will raise more awareness of how important such a piece of equipment could be in treating patients quickly and we intend to pursue this as a campaign on how important bladder health could be in the fight against dementia.”
Jackie Perkins, service manager of community nursing service at St James’ Clinic said: “We are extremely proud to receive such a welcomed donation to our team it will make a huge difference to the health and wellbeing of our patients. It was an honour to be a part of Linda’s caring team and we would like to thank Graham, Gaynor and Linda’s family for presenting the team with such a valuable piece of equipment.”
For more information about Community Nursing at NHFT visit: www.nhft.nhs.uk/community-nursing