It was lovely to welcome Ann (a Breast Care Nurse at Winchester Hospital) along to our meeting and she gave us an update on changes at the hospital.

Mr Rainsbury retired in December 2019 and they held an official retirement do for him last week which included some colleagues that he has worked with and / or mentored over the years. 
He has also been all around the world setting up various training programmes and passing on his wealth of knowledge and experience and there are a number of procedures and initiatives that Mr Rainsbury is responsible for introducing or driving forward: 

– Barbara Parry (one of only two Breast Cancer Research Dieticians in the UK, who we are very lucky to have working in Winchester) did a study on watercress with him years ago, identifying the benefits of eating watercress.
– A new “Intraoperative radiation” treatment that he was involved in was started in Winchester, but has been suspended awaiting more funding.
– He was instrumental in getting the OSNA machine which is used to test lymph nodes while patients are in the operating theatre.
– The “Mini Flap Op” – where a quadrant of breast is replaced using LD (not the same as the full LD flap operation where the whole breast is replaced using LD)
– The LICAP Operation which uses tissue from under the arm to reconstruct the breast.

In Africa he is continuing to set up a training programme and he was a real driving force behind breast cancer operations and will probably still be involved in this area in a small way. It sounds like he will be very much missed by his colleagues and patients alike.

The “Winchester Cancer Research Fund” Charity started by him will possibly be handed over to Ms Laws

Who is taking over at HHFT ? 
-Ms Laws leading on research
-Miss Chand at Winchester
-Miss Paranthanathan at Winchester
-Mr Harris at Basingstoke
-Mrs Stanton at Basingstoke
-Ms Stebbings

Jo Fields is a new Advanced Nurse Practitioner who started in November 2019. She is a Qualified Nurse, with a PHD and a Masters degree. We will invite her to future Winchester + Eastleigh meetings.

“Open access” follow up / “patient triggered” follow up / “patient led” follow ups are being implemented whereby patients do not have to continue to have regular checkups at the hospital, but they can access help if they notice any symptoms or have concerns that they wish to see a Breast Care Nurses or Doctors about.

“My medical record” is an NHS initiative becoming gradually available across the area, where patients can see their medical history online, incuding scanned copies of relevant documents.

There is a Survey called “CLIMB” – Clinical informatics for mind and brain – which HHFT would like all patients to participate in. This is a Cambridge based team working both locally and with colleagues around the country to improve mental and physical health care and research using health data. You can access the survey as follows:
Www.climbproject.org.uk 

Sarah Rowcliffe at Jane Scarth House in Romsey has advised Ann that they are running lots of courses that we might be interested in – some are for relaxation and some for health and wellbeing – see their website for details : http://www.janescarthhouse.co.uk/
– The Macmillan HOPE course is being run on Wednesday 1st April and Wednesday 8th April from 10-4 each day – you need to go on both dates.  http://www.janescarthhouse.co.uk/our-services/macmillan-hope-course/

Here are some of the courses on offer –

There is a 6 week “Art for Relaxation” course
An 8 week Mindfulness course

Ann advised that there is a new type of breast prosthesis available from Amoena, which uses a pump to inflate or deflate the form as required.
Breast forms are meant to keep you cool or keep you warm and should not be too uncomfortable.
Breast Forms should last around 5 years but you can simply call the breast care nurses to start the process for a new or a replacement breast form.
But if it is over 5-6 years since your last breast form, you have to go through your GP to ask for a referral to the breast care nurses – this is to ensure that the hospital get the funding for the new breast form.

With reduced estrogen for women on estrogen suppressants, eg. tamoxifen, Ann advised that we need to ensure that we have enough calcium and vitamin D in our diet, and do some weight bearing exercise to keep our bones strong. 

Winchester City Council have produced a booklet with savings for various exercise options across the City, and this includes the Exercise Referral Scheme, Health Walks, Swim4Health and other useful contacts.

Pattie and Elaine have very kindly offered to organise the setting up of the next meeting at Winchester in April, with tea, coffee, milk and biscuits. Thank you ladies.

So please do come along to our next Winchester meeting on 7th April when we will welcome Barbara Parry – one of only two Breast Cancer Research Dieticians in the UK who we are very lucky to have working in Winchester – along with Jaana Jeffery, to give us all an update on the research they have been working on since they visited us last year.