Since the last report to the Parish Magazine in 2006 the Surgery Fund has received over £21,000 in donations and has spent over £17,000 on items and services not normally available on the NHS. The Trustees together with everyone at the Surgery and the patients are all very grateful to all those who have made and continue to make donations.

It is not the policy of the Fund to sit on donations or limit spending to the investment income of invested money. Instead, apart from keeping a balance in hand for urgent needs and as a cushion, the money is spent for the purposes for which it was donated, namely to give help to the patients of Caldbeck Surgery.

Over the years various items of equipment have been supplied to patients for use in their homes regardless of financial status. The equipment has improved their circumstances and has also enabled many patients to remain in their own homes either permanently or for longer than would otherwise have been possible. Among other items, bath seats have been particularly appreciated.

Many items of equipment outside those normally provided by the NHS have also been purchased for the Surgery and the District Nurses which have enabled patients to be diagnosed, monitored and treated for various conditions in the Surgery or at home so avoiding a journey to hospital or elsewhere with the extra costs and time involved.

Among recent donations by the Fund have been the following :

£1,000 towards a new phlebotomy chair to enable Healthcare Assistants to take blood and carry out ECGs more comfortably for the patients.

Purchase of a Dopplex Machine and Widebeam Technology Probe to enable Nurses to assess and treat ulcers in the surgery rather than sending the patients to Carlisle.

Purchase of two pulse oximeters for use by the Nurses.

Purchase of two Coagucheck machines. These are blood monitoring machines and one is used in the Surgery and one out in the district by the Nurses. .

£1,000 towards a machine to help diagnose asthma and chronic bronchitis.

A grant of £2,500 per annum is made to the Northern Fells Group to help with the operating costs of the minibus as at least half the minibus passenger journeys are medically related. This grant has been made annually since the first NFG minibus began to operate in 1999.

A First Responder Group has been set up for the area covering Boltons, Ireby & Uldale and a donation of £900 was made towards this.

The current Trustees of the Surgery Fund are Ernest Teasdale (Chairman), Michael Bohling (Treasurer), Anne Cartmell (Secretary), David Ward, Marjorie Watson and Monica Whitson. Since the last report Kathleen Ashbridge, Malcolm Thyne and Hilary Mattinson have retired as Trustees.

Although the Fund and the Trustees are independent of the medical practice, the Trustees are assisted in the administration of the Fund by the Practice Manager. The Fund is registered as a Charity Number 1010398.

December 2010