AN Islander who lives with a stoma has called for the return of a dedicated community nurse that used to help her and other patients by providing support at home and holding easy to access clinics.
Shell Wason, who had a stoma fitted in 1996 because of her long-term condition ulcerative colitis that causes chronic inflammation, said that patients like her no longer have access community-level nurse that made things “so much easier”.
The 69-year-old described how up until two or three years ago they had access to a community stoma nurse who could “come out to your house and had a clinic you could go to”, with such easy access that you “could just turn up on a Tuesday or ring them up”.
Ms Wason added that, while she had heard good things about one of the specialist nurses at the Hospital, she, and any other specialists, “must be inundated” without a community nurse being available, which is a “silly situation”.
The community nurse had been working for the Family Nursing & Home Care charity which is contracted by the government to provide the provision of certain services in Jersey.
Its chief executive Rosemarie Finley said that it previously had a clinical nurse specialist dedicated to bladder and bowel care until 2023 when the nurse transitioned to another department.
“It presented an ideal opportunity to review both the demands and the scope of the role. It was agreed that the most effective investment was to upskill our district nursing team in bladder and bowel care,” she said.
“We were fortunate to have the expertise of our former specialist nurse, whose knowledge and experience have played a central part in delivering this training as part of her new role in the Education Department.
“It’s worth noting that stoma care was only a small component of the original specialist nursing position. It is always a high risk to have a single person providing any clinical role and the level of demand did not justify continuing this approach.”
The charity has also worked closely with the health department who have two specialist nurses who “are able to provide expert advice and care when provided,” added Ms Finley in a final note.
