A huge #TeamCHFT welcome to Consultant Physiotherapist, Adrian Robertson, from Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust.

Adrian will be with us every Friday afternoon at CRH supporting our Neurophysiology patients – something he’s already been doing at Mid Yorkshire following the retirement of Consultant, Dr Shwe Tun.

He’ll be supporting us to reduce our waiting lists and supervising advanced clinical practitioners to skill them up.

Adrian, pictured right, said: “I saw the article in CHFT News about Dr Randall from Leeds Teaching Hospitals, who is offering similar support each week, and it made me think what we could do to enable CHFT patients to be treated closer to home.

“It’s better to have one car drive to CRH, than 20 patients having to come all the way to Wakefield. It’s already stressful enough coming to hospital appointments, never mind travelling further than you need to.”

CHFT’s Advanced Practitioner Michelle Butt and her colleague Elizabeth Graham, pictured left, have been seeing patients with Adrian at Mid Yorkshire for around three months.

Adrian added: “It just seems like a win-win all round. Patients are treated closer to home, and we can also train up CHFT colleagues with the skills they need, and eventually it will free up capacity at Mid Yorkshire.”

Deputy Director of Operations, Chris Roberts, said: “It’s fantastic to see one small idea expand across our service. Ultimately our patients will benefit from being able to receive their care closer to home and our team will be skilled up to deliver the service.

“I can only see this going from strength to strength across the region.”

The Portability Arrangement within West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts (WYAAT) allows clinicians to work from different sites across the patch.