The PTC will close its doors for the Christmas and New Year holidays on Thursday 20th December 2018 and will re-open on
Monday 7th January 2019.
Although we are now into our last 2 weeks of treatment
for 2018, this is not designed to be a final blog of the year that reviews
everything that we have done in 2018, but I will pick out a couple of
highlights of significant events.
Firstly and most importantly, we are on track to easily beat the number
of patients that we treated in 2017 during this year, and go sailing past
3500. We are of course very much
focussed on the quality of the treatment that we provide to our patients, but I
am also keen that we treat as many of them as possible and therefore I am
delighted to see the numbers move back up to the levels that we achieved 2
years ago, and I also hope to push this further in 2019.
Noteworthy
amongst these numbers is the ongoing increase in patients attending our
Wellbeing Programme. I should put it on
the record that I am particularly impressed with those individuals who have
recognised that they do need some Wellbeing help and support and they take the
courageous first step of applying for treatment on the Programme, as part of
their treatment journey. All of our patients at the PTC are simply patients to
us, and those presenting with physical injuries are mixed with those on the
Wellbeing Programme. I think that this
both sends an important message to everyone that an “injury is simply an
injury” whether it is physical or a Wellbeing issue, and both groups form a
mutually supporting environment to help each other during their stays with us. Most of you will be aware that we have
recently submitted planning permission to expand our Harrogate Centre in order
to better treat the growing number of patients presenting for Wellbeing issues.
I hope to have some positive news on that in the New Year.
We
were also very pleased to welcome Staffordshire to the PTC constituency in
October who can now use the PTC as their Treatment Centre of
choice. We have also signed a contract with Immigration Enforcement to treat
(on repayment) a limited number of their Officers who routinely work alongside
Police Officers in the course of their duties.
This does not mark a step change for the PTC in how we do our core
business, but rather an ongoing evolution to ensure that we maintain our number
of donors, remain modern, relevant and fit for purpose in order to treat the
modern Police Service. We were also very
pleased that when Staffordshire moved to the PTC, they brought all of the retired
officers with them, who are now eligible to sign up as donors and for treatment
at the PTC. Over one hundred of them did
so in the first few weeks and we were delighted to welcome in to the PTC
another group of retirees who we continue to value and support.
We
have had a raft of visitors at both Centres since the last Blog, and I won’t
try and capture all of them, but in recent weeks we have hosted the Chief
Constable of Cumbria Michelle Skeer for her first visit to the PTC, although
she was keen to reassure me that although this was her first visit, she had
donated to the PTC throughout her career, and the new Chair of Merseyside
Police Federation Tony Fairclough, and the Chair of GMP Federation Stu Berry.
We
were also delighted to welcome Andrew Jones MP representing Harrogate and
Knaresborough, on a visit to our Harrogate Centre on Friday 7 December. It
provided a welcome break for Andrew from his parliamentary debate in
Westminster and I managed not to mention the word BREXIT until the third minute
of his visit! On a serious note, it was
a very useful visit updating Andrew on everything that we have been doing at
the PTC and of course some of our plans for the future.
The
PTC team and I have attended a number of outside Conferences including the
Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, a Conference for all the
Occupational Health Departments for the various Forces, and the North Yorkshire
Women in Policing Conference to name but a few.
It has also been wonderful to see a steady trickle of money coming in
from individual and force fundraisers, At the end of November, we received news
of a very substantial donation from one of the Trusts and Foundations that we
have established a relationship with recently, who wanted to support our
Psychological Wellbeing Programme.
There
is more to be done, and as I am fond of saying if we are going to run a class
leading treatment centre like the PTC we need to do it properly, and to do so,
it takes money, so if you do have any other ideas or suggestions as to how you
might be able to support us, do please let us know.
Thank
you to everyone for their support of the PTC this year, and indeed all of the
PTC team. I am sure from the number of
cards, conversations, and follow up emails that I get from our patients you
really do recognise the exceptional work that everyone in all departments puts
in to providing the very best care and treatment that our patients deserve, and
they are proud to do so.
That
is it for this month’s Blog. I wish all our Police Officers and Police Staff a
happy and safe New Year. I hope that the shift rota is kind to you and you can
create some time and space for your family and friends, and indeed yourself,
over the Christmas period.
I
look forward to welcoming even more of you to the PTC in 2019.
Feliciter
Servimus
Patrick
Cairns
CEO
PTC
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