From Nick Hindmarsh
I was genuinely excited when I saw this appointment advertised in the Chronicle in June last year, and surprised and delighted when I was offered the position. These past eight months have really confirmed that this is the job that I thought it would be; made so much easier by the great team in the office, the volunteers, trustees and most of all Dee, our dynamic Chair!
I have worked in this community for the past 6 years now, and with many community leaders. When I left my role at Dartmouth Academy I was asked what my plans were and I used to reply that I wanted to continue to work with the community. This role is one that allows me to work with the people and families of Dartmouth to provide and lobby for the health and care services we so need.
Over these past few months the consultation on the local health provision for Dartmouth has caused a great deal of angst among our clients, and required significant effort on our part and others, to ensure the NHS got the message. We are generally pleased with their engagement, listening and efforts to find a positive way forward.
We look forward to our move up the hill to the river View Care Home, the site of the new Health and Wellbeing Centre. Please continue to let us know your thoughts, concerns and anxieties, so that together we may make this as good a development as possible.
Those who do not live here rarely grasp the real geographical isolation and inconvenience, at best, of our town. In my first year here my key objectives are:
1. To ensure I, and Dartmouth Caring, do all we can to support the community to secure a genuinely high quality outcome from the NHS consultation and implementation of their health care model, and
2. To improve, increase and develop our offering so that we continue to ‘plug the gaps’ that exist and prevent as many people as possible from slipping through the net in the health and care sector.
I look forward to working with you.