Being recognised by the Quality in the Delivery of Services (QuDoS) in MS programme sends a strong message to “the powers that be” at trust level.
That’s according to Dr Wendy Hendrie, specialist MS physiotherapist and winner of the 2016 Outstanding Allied Health Professional (AHP) title.
Wendy, who will be joining this year’s QuDoS judging panel for the second time, said the programme acted as a platform for the fantastic work carried out by AHPs in MS up and down the country which is often unrecognised and undervalued.
“I was the first allied health professional (AHP) to win and it was incredibly humbling,” said Wendy, who is based in Norwich and is co-chair and one of the first members of Therapists in MS (TiMS).
“I know from all the work I do with TiMS that there are hundreds of really inspiring, motivated AHPs out there. I felt that it wasn’t my award, it was the award that said AHPs do a great job for people with MS. It was a spotlight on the work we all do.”
Ground-breaking care
Wendy has worked in complex neurological conditions for more than three decades and has been a champion of people with MS throughout.
She recently attended the 30th anniversary of Meadow House, the residential home for young people living with neuro-related disability that she and her GP husband founded in the 1980s.
“Back then, you had young disabled units attached to the hospital. People were in hospital, but they were disabled, not ill.
“Many of these places were very institutionalised and there were not really facilities for young people. They were not very nice places to stay,” she said, adding she saw many of her young MS patients moved to old people’s homes as their disability progressed.
Wendy and her husband could see a different way of doing things, so they sold their home and used the proceeds to open the 24-bed unit, predominantly for people with MS. They ran it together for two decades, with the residents very much in the driving seat, before selling it ten years ago.
“It’s still very much alive and kicking, still looking after young people with physical disabilities, and it was lovely to go back to see that on the anniversary,” she said.
Calling all passionate champions
Wendy, who has worked with Multiple Sclerosis MS Therapy Centres, formerly ARMS (Action Research in MS) and in the NHS, throughout her career, has seen all manner of changes.
High among them has been moving the care of people with advanced MS from hospitals or old people’s homes to the community, which has brought obvious benefits.
But not all progress has been in the right direction, she said, adding that there needed to be more “passionate champions” who would drive change in MS care.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say things in the NHS are getting any better. When I look back on the number of committees I have sat on, sets of guidelines I have written, I see all these words, but we have rarely been able to put them into practice,” said Wendy.
“We all know what people with MS want, the hard thing is actually getting that to happen. Convincing commissioners what people with MS need, setting the services up, getting experts in posts and having specialists recognised is difficult these days, but it’s just so important.”
Teams are overworked, resources are often directed towards larger therapy areas and there is often a lack of leadership from the NHS and the Department of Health, she said.
She explained: “Sometimes, I think people at the coalface have just got their head down and they haven’t got the time or energy to fight for what they need because they are too busy with patients.”
Part of the problem is a lack of data to prove the value of specialist MS services, she went on.
“We know from case studies what a good job we do, but commissioners need the hard data and that’s difficult. How do you measure quality of life? How do you measure how well you are doing when you’re up against a condition that’s getting worse?
“It’s very difficult to show that you’re actually making people feel better and manage their condition more effectively.”
A platform for excellence
QuDoS can help overcome at least some of these barriers by giving specialists a platform within their organisations, said Wendy, who became her trust’s newsletter cover girl after winning in 2016.
“I’d say it brought what we were doing a little bit more to the awareness of the ‘powers that be’ and elevated the role,” she said.
Wendy plans to retire next year, and in part she credits her QuDoS success for her trust’s MS physiotherapist succession plan.
“They have given me someone who I can work with over the next year to pass on my knowledge and expertise. I think there is an element of being able to say: ‘the work we’re doing here has been nationally recognised, so it would be awful to discontinue it’,” she said.
“A national award shows that people have an expertise in their area and that their knowledge is important to the people living with that condition.”
To nominate yourself, a colleague or a team for a QuDoS award, click here.