News and Events

NEWS: posted 09/03/2010

Scottish Post Polio Network 2008/2009 Annual Report

AGM & Conference held on Saturday 3rd October 2009 at Strathclyde Hilton Hotel Bellshill Glasgow

The Scottish Post Polio Network has continued over the last year to work on behalf of members to achieve recognition of Post Polio Syndrome in Scotland.

The committee had 4 meetings and also communicated between meetings via email the work has continued to progress. Representatives from SPPN Helene, Brian and Agnes have also attended 4 meetings with the Scottish Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee (SASMAC) Working Party on Post Polio Syndrome/Late effects of Polio.

Due to the continued pressure of SPPN it is believed that people who had polio and are now experiencing post polio syndrome will at last be included along with others who have long term neurological conditions in the structure of services and we will start to see a change in the services that we now desperately require to have access to.


Scottish Government

The first meeting of the working party under the auspice of (SMASAC) took place on 5th March 2009 chaired by Professor Jim McKillop Muirhead Professor of Medicine and Head of Undergraduate Medical School at Glasgow University who himself had polio and is now experiencing PPS, this working party includes representatives from SPPN, Neurology, Orthotics, Wheelchair & Rehabilitation Service, Clinical Psychology, Respiratory, Pharmacology, Orthopaedics, Geriatric Medicine, Lymphoedema, Occupational Therapy, General Practice, Dietetics and Chiropody/Podiatry. The work continues.

We have Professor Jim McKillop chairman of the working group here as one of the speakers at our conference Jim will be talking about what has been undertaken to date and the proposed report that will be drawn up from these meetings and what it aims to achieve.


SPPN Website

The website has completely undergone a face lift and been brought up to date. SPPN now have a new Logo and to be politically correct we now picture both male and female using both a wheelchair and walking aid on our homepage, this work has been undertaken by the Big Partnership to compliment the publication campaign and has been sponsored by the Scottish Government on SPPN behalf.

The website now includes a Forum which gives opportunity for people to post messages and make new contact with other people experiencing the same difficulties as themselves. This facility has been very slow to take off and it is hoped that members will start to use the forum and find it useful especially as our membership covers varied locations through Scotland and some very rarely ever meet up with anyone else who has had polio the website now include a change to communicate SPPN will be giving notice of the forum in the next newsletter, Please use this facility and let the committee know if you want anything added to your website.

SPPN would like to thank Jim MacDonald for all the work he put into SPPN’s previous website and congratulate him on the new website he has just set up for British Polio Fellowship.


Membership

Agnes Walker continues to make contact with many members from all over Scotland. Through experiencing many of the problems of trying to live as productively and independently as possible within the confines of her ever increasing symptoms Agnes is always a friendly voice at the end of the phone to patiently listen and can give first hand advice and support when required.

The evaluation forms that have been returned from the new Membership Packs and also the Queensland Manual convey that members have found the leaflets and manual very helpful and many have taken them along to GP’s Consultants and physiotherapists and have received positive results.
Consultants that have agreed to have their names added to SPPN List have been sent a copy of the Queensland Manual, courtesy of the Scottish Government on behalf of SPPN, so the information is being distributed not only to members but also to the medical profession

We will shortly be sending out with the next newsletter a bundle of Post Polio Information leaflets with membership slip attached and ask members to distribute these in the GP surgery leaflet facility and/or Chemist to continue to spread the information on PPS as wide as possible.

The SPPN membership has increased considerably since the publication campaign sponsored by The Scottish Government has taken off. 107 enquiries were dealt with by Helene and Agnes by phone and email and membership packs and Queensland report sent out to new members the enquiries were from people who were experiencing new symptoms and many had never thought these symptoms could be associated with their previous polio and a great number were not receiving any support from their GP’s even though they themselves were aware of the possibility of PPS.

Reports of “Blank stares, total denial of such a thing, not knowing anything about it and complete disinterest” from GP’s was repeated again and again.
More work to be done in this direction?

How do we get the relevant information to General Practitioners? Who are the gate keepers to further consultations and other medical and social work services.

A couple of copy books of the various publications sent out by the Big Partnership with response and summery are available to view on the resource table with comment slip


SPPN Interested Consultants List

24 Consultants have now agreed to have their names added to this list and will except referrals from G P’s. The list included consultants in Orthopaedic, Neurology Respiratory and Rehabilitation departments throughout Scotland. Thanks must go to Mr Malcolm MacNicol who initiated this list by contacting many of his colleges and getting them on board, Thanks also to Dr Chris Roy and Dr Stephen Banham who are both on the Scottish Government working party on PPS and have helped recruit some of their colleges in the respiratory and rehabilitation field onto the list.The List continues to grow.

If you have attended any of the consultants on the list please get back to SPPN and let us know the outcome, also arrange to have regular reviews possibly ever 1 to 2 years, as symptoms and mobility may continue to change and this allows consultant to keep track of any deterioration and make corrections or give further advice when necessary.


Newsletter

Pat Grey has been assisting Agnes with the newsletter and will take over as editor from the next edition. Please help Pat by submitting articles, stories, quiz or anything you want to see included in your newsletter.
A Newsletter is only as good as the information supplied to its editor.
Come on put pen to paper and make our newsletter a big success.

The Present committee are willing to continue to campaign on your behalf. We need support and assistance from the membership. Please give of your expertise a little of your valuable time and lots of moral support.


Member Assistance - required for committee and newsletter and do we have any experts in computer Data base? As the membership increases Agnes would be pleased of any assistance with setting up and updating SPPN data base to its full advantage.



TREASURER’S REPORT 2009


Again, we have had a successful and financially healthy year as can be seen from the accounts.

The balances on both accounts stand at £5,298.00 thanks, in part, to a £2000 restricted grant from the Scottish Government, also to Lloyds / TSB who have allowed us to use the £619 = 00 left over from2007/08 to use for our 2009 AGM and Conference.

Membership for the year stands at 97. This is up on last year only because we had to move the renewal date from September to April to keep in line with the Constitution and the OSCR.
Our biggest expenses for the year have been printing and postage, for two reasons:-

1.Every member has received a copy of the Queensland Report, thanks to funding from the Scottish Healthcare Policy and Strategy Directorate. New and updated Membership Packs were issued to all members thanks to funding from Lloyds/TSB Foundation for Scotland.

Both of these expenses will be ongoing due to an influx of new members.

Thanks to funding also from Lloyds/TSB, we were able to hold down the cost of the AGM/Conference to members at £17.00.

Your Committee devotes a lot of time and effort to the network on your behalf and endeavours to keep expenses to a minimum, thus the healthy state of the accounts for this financial year.

I would like to thank Mr. Andrew Duncan, our independent examiner, for auditing the accounts and would propose that he is nominated again for the coming year.



Treasurer
Brian Wellington

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