This month is Skin Cancer Awareness month and we are delighted to announce our new partnership with Melanoma UK. The intention of this partnership is to raise awareness of melanoma, not only this May but throughout the course of the year and your careers, for podiatrists and foot health practitioners to identify lesions of concern, and to give guidance through information and services available to both healthcare professionals and their patients.
Melanoma UK is the leading melanoma patient support organisation in the UK who are active in their participation in health technology appraisal meetings (NICE and SMC), presenting clinically validated information on their website, authoring publications from their Melanoma UK digital registry and who have developed and regularly engage with their very own panel of medical experts.
Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer and is the 5th most common cancer in the UK. By 2025 it is projected that 19,513 people in the UK are expected to be diagnosed with melanoma and according to the World Health Organisation approximately 3,119 of these people are expected to die from melanoma that year.
As podiatrists and foot health professionals we see a 3rd of a person’s body each and every working day. It is important that we have an understanding of troublesome lesions and that we can identify those which could prove lethal to our patients. This partnership is the beginning of a journey to educate our profession, offer greater care to our patients, and an opportunity to work together to help reduce these daunting figures.
What better way to introduce you to melanoma than this highly-informative webinar on acral and subungual melanoma with Professor Christian Aldridge (Melanoma UK Medical Advisor) and Ms Kei Hutchinson (Associate lecturer In podiatry at Cardiff Uni) on Acral and Subungual Melanoma. https://www.melanomauk.org.uk/acral-and-subungual-melanoma
Together with Melanoma UK we aim to bring you further information, news and education around skin cancers and melanoma throughout the course of the year.
For more information on melanoma and the great work and resources available from Melanoma UK visit Melanoma UK
The last remaining COVID restrictions in England have ended (24th Feb), in the Republic of Ireland the mandatory requirement to wear a mask was removed (28th Feb) and Scotland’s restrictions are due to end on 21st March.
The guidance from NHS England, the UK Health Security Agency, the Northern Ireland Public Health Agency, and Public Health Wales continues to recommend Type II or Type IIR face coverings in healthcare settings.
The advice also recommends that: “physical distancing of one metre should still remain, increasing whenever feasible to two metres, across all health and care settings”. The guidance continues to recommend that staff and organisations continue to undertake risk assessments using ‘hierarchy of controls’ measures. This should include an evaluation of the ventilation in the area, operational capacity, physical distancing and prevalence of Covid-19.
The guidance has also made a range of recommendations for occupational health practitioners working within the NHS, health or care settings. This has included re-emphasising that “prompt recognition” of cases of respiratory infection among health and care staff remains essential to limiting transmission. “All staff should be vigilant for any signs of respiratory infection and should not come to work if they have respiratory symptoms.
In the Republic of Ireland with effect from 28th February, the mandatory requirement to wear masks was removed, whilst public health advice that masks should continue to be worn on public transport and in healthcare settings remains. Please see https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/aac74c-guidance-on-safe-use-of-face-coverings/
“I am delighted to welcome Anthony Hubbard to the Institute’s Senior Management Team from 1st January 2022 in a brand new and most exciting role for the Institute as Chief Executive Officer. His simple remit is to continue to drive forward our ongoing development and long-term growth as the fully democratic UK professional podiatry and foot health body that is run by members for members. You will probably already know Anthony as a co-opted external expert to the Institute’s Board of Directors, and over the last months he has brought to our deliberations a welcome fund of knowledge and widespread experience in the healthcare world. His past senior roles include Managing Director of the nationally known medical and scientific supplies company Schuco International, and his present role is as a Senior Technical Executive in Croda Pharmaceuticals (a UK chemicals/pharmaceutical company with a current revenue of £1.39 Billion) from which he moves on to take over his new role with IOCP. As well as being a strong business professional he is a Scientist with a BSc (Hons) in Applied Chemistry from Trent Polytechnic, a Chartered Scientist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Anthony will be reporting to the Board via myself and working with Jill as Company Secretary and her admin team of Julie, our Membership Officer, Sam, our Education Officer and Kirsty, our Marketing Specialist, with all of whom he has already established an excellent professional relationship during his time as a Board Advisor. I know that I speak for the Board in that they, and myself, are looking forward immensely to working with Anthony, and our already established team members, in this exciting new development stage of our more than 70 years of service to the feet of the nation and the dedicated professionals; you, our members, who work so hard to maintain and improve it.” – Martin Harvey FPodM IP PGC BSc, Chair Board of Directors IOCP
Anthony Hubbard CSci CChem FRSC: “At a time when NHS services are becoming increasingly more difficult to access, certainly in a timely manner, we have a great opportunity in front of us to promote our services directly to the general public and also to work to train and develop people involved in all levels of foot and lower limb health, from entry level foot health practitioners all the way through to supporting podiatric surgeons in their ongoing continual professional development in delivering their services and supporting them in their own business growth. To do this, we need to review our ways of working, create a strategy for growth, develop our supporting services and focus on delivery in all that we do.
What experience do I have in creating such a pathway and ensuring that we deliver? For the past 6 years I have been leading a health care applications laboratory for the largest chemical company in the UK, a company called Croda, with their HQ in Yorkshire; you probably haven’t heard of them by name, but you will have heard all of their customers in the personal care and health care world and you will almost certainly have used some of their materials in your day-to-day lives without knowing it. If you have had a COVID-19 vaccine, then you will have had some of their very pure excipients used in the delivery system for those active pharmaceutical ingredients in the vaccines. Prior to working with Croda, I have previously worked with The Institute when I was the Managing Director of Schuco, a London based company who were supplying medical devices to IOCP members and supporting training events and the annual conference. During my time at Schuco, I grew the business year-on-year by working closely with customers to understand the market and their needs and delivered against those needs. I also have a background of working with Boots the Chemists, where I was leading teams developing and testing products and managing regulatory compliance and the groups technical policy. I also worked with regulators and the government to shape the law and regulations for the safety of cosmetic products within the UK.
I look forward to 2022 where we will be providing the infrastructure for engagement and growth from HQ and the delivery will only be successful with a network or tutors, trainers, mentors and auditors. To that end, I am putting out my first call for volunteers so that we can have the whole UK geography covered with eager, helpful members who are interested in getting involved in developing others to be the best that they can be! If you want to get on board at this exciting time for the IoCP, drop me a line telling me what area you would be interested in supporting and what geographical area you would be able to cover.
I aim to be meeting lots of our members through the year to get a better understanding of how you feel that The Institute can be shaped to deliver the things that you need from a great membership organisation. One place that you will be able to meet me personally will be at our AGM, so get the date in your diary if you are able to get to the NEC in May.
Until then, please feel free to reach out to me at anthony@iocp.org.uk. Here’s wishing you a happy, healthy and successful 2022.”
The Foot Health Standards are part of work which aims to increase the supply of podiatrists in the NHS, while expanding the role of the support workforce. The Standards will ensure that the NHS recognises the knowledge and skills of the wider foot health support workforce.
The Standards were open to consultation in late 2020. The responses of stakeholders have been used to further develop the Standards and to better understand the issues and challenges around this topic.
The Standards are intended to support the NHS in utilising the full skills mix of the foot health workforce to meet demand, by providing a clear understanding of the footcare treatments that the NHS podiatry support workforce and foot health practitioners can safely perform. The needs and safety of patients is central in this work. Employers and managers can use the Standards to effectively plan, develop, and deploy their support workforce.
From our work with support workers and services across the country we know there is wide variation in their education and training, and how they are deployed. This work will ensure that:
Patients and service users have access to skilled and consistently well-trained support workers who have a defined role within their team
support workers have access to development structures that provide opportunities to follow a richer and more rewarding career pathway
services can address the current variation in support worker roles, banding and progression
support worker roles can be at the heart of improvements in service delivery and transformation, including new models of care.
The main objective is to increase the supply into podiatry and ensure that the NHS recognises the knowledge and skills of the support workforce.
How to use the Standards
NHS managers can use the Standards to understand the treatments that different parts of their foot health support workforces can safely deliver. This will support them in ensuring that they have in place workforces with the skills mix they need to care for patients. This will help managers design services to meet increased patient demand.
Education providers can use the Standards to underpin the development of educational pathways into the NHS podiatry support workforce and onto pre-registration education and training programmes in podiatry. This will support the development and growth of the support and podiatrist workforces.
The development of the Standards was overseen by a Consortium of Foot Health Leaders who gathered to address the problem of the falling recruitment numbers on traditional routes into podiatry. The priority of the Consortium was to develop a foot health career ladder and educational resources that will support and increase the number of podiatrists and podiatry support workers working in the NHS.
The work of the Consortium has enabled a better understanding of the workforce that provides foot care, with the aim of optimising this workforce for the benefit of those who use the services of any practitioner, in England, who work in this arena.
Copy slides of the nail presentation written and presented by Martin Harvey (9th December 2020 via Zoom) are now available here Nailed_it
If you have any questions please contact our team info@cofh.org.uk
The College of Foot Healthhas agreed with HMCA to offer discounted rates for medical plans, dental plan, hospital cash plans, travel plan, income protection and vehicle breakdown products.
Are you paying too much for your present private medical plan? Why not take a look at the HMCA plans and compare the benefits and subscriptions offered? You may transfer to HMCA at any age and without a medical examination; there will be no break in protection and there is a 14 day money-back guarantee.
HMCA only offer medical plans to membership groups and can offer up to a 40% discount off the underwriter’s standard rates. This is a comprehensive plan which provides generous cash benefits for surgery and other charges
Who are HMCA? – HMCA has specialised in providing benefits and services to associations and professional groups since the 1970s. HMCA is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
For further information and quotations contact HMCA by telephone on 01423 799949 or visit the exclusive HMCA College of Foot Health website here: https://www.hmca.co.uk/icp
HMCA/S PLC (trading as Hospital and Medical Care Association, HMCA and HMCA Members) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN:307587). HMCA/s PLC is a company registered in England, company number: 01362094, registered office: Beech Hall, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, HG5 0EA.
Join our work to protect and grow the foot health workforce to meet patients’ needs. We are asking the Foot Health Community; Podiatrists, Foot health Practitioners and Assistant Practitioners in Podiatry to watch our webinar and respond to our survey so we can capture feedback from across the professions.
