Allied Health Professionals (AHPs’) Day on 14 October is an opportunity to celebrate and appreciate the fantastic work of this group of health workers – including those who work for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The Trust’s six hospitals – Bradford Royal Infirmary, St Luke’s Hospital, Westbourne Green, Westwood Park, Eccleshill and Shipley Hospital – are all supported by dedicated teams of AHPs covering nine professions.
These are dietitians, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, orthoptists (someone who diagnoses and treats eye movement disorders), orthotists (someone who fits medical support devices to improve a person’s movement), physiotherapists, podiatrists, radiographers and speech and language therapists.
In the run up to the day, which this year has the theme, ‘Celebrate, Inspire, Appreciate, Connect’, the Trust has a number of events planned including staging an interactive awareness event on the main concourse at BRI.
The Trust’s Executive team has also been on the ‘shop floor’ shadowing and supporting their AHP colleagues.
The Trust’s Lead Allied Health Professional, Jane Kingsley said:
AHPs are the third largest workforce in the NHS. In the main they are degree level professions, and are autonomous practitioners. They cover a total of 14 different professions and we are very fortunate across our Trust to have representation from nine of them.
AHPs provide system-wide care to assess, treat, diagnose and discharge patients across social care, housing, education, and independent and voluntary sectors. Their focus is on prevention and improvement of health and wellbeing to maximise the potential for individuals to live full and active lives.
She added:
AHPs’ Day is held annually on 14 October and is an opportunity for AHPs to celebrate being part of the AHP family and to showcase the impact we make to the delivery of high quality care.
I’m proud to be an AHP and I’m really impressed by the AHPs and support workers in Bradford. Their dedication and desire to do the best for the patients really shines through. We should celebrate and appreciate them – AHPs’ Day gives everyone an opportunity to do that.
AHPs are continually striving to improve the lives of patients through innovative and cutting-edge work.
Recently, this has included dietitians providing nutritional care and dietary treatment to patients with kidney disease at all stages of treatment as well as working with neonatal teams to ensure pre-term babies have the correct nutritional treatment to support growth.
Dietitians have also developed a Children’s Weight Management programme to help address the problem of childhood obesity in the district.
A Proactive Care Team (PACT) service has also been established with Bradford District Care Foundation Trust, which supports people aged 18 and over who are living with two or more co-morbidities.
The innovative work of the Shipley Therapy Team has also been recognised. The team has made the ‘Public Health Champion Award’ shortlist of the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer – CAHPO – Awards 2022. The award is given by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. The team has been working in proactive roles to reduce health inequalities amongst moderately frail people in Bradford.
The winners will be announced on AHPs’ Day.
Read more about AHPs’ Day here: NHS England » Allied Health Professions (AHPs’) Day
Take a look at our website to see the range of professions that make up the AHP workforce.