Huge Congratulations to Angela McKenzie, who was recently recognized for her 35-years of NHS service during the NHS 75th Birthday celebrations at Westminster Abbey (5 July).
Her journey began in the NHS at the Manpower Service Department in the West Midlands Regional Health Authority almost 35 years ago, and her commitment to positive change has never faltered, as she reinforced, “My passion and dedication to working to improve the health and wellbeing of communities have only intensified.”
Angela has worked collaboratively with Feltham and Bedfont Primary Care Network (PCN) on various projects to decrease health disparities within the local community.
One of her recent project successes was delivered by utilising the NHS England Population Health Management programme, as the PCN was enabled to develop, identify, and implement an integrated approach to manage a cohort of patients who had a high blood pressure reading (but were not diagnosed as hypertensive).
The project aimed to increase awareness about health conditions that could be prevented, or undetected if patients living in deprived areas' readings were uncontrolled or not regularly monitored. The project achieved success through early NHS health checks, social prescriber assessments, and onward referrals to other services, such as weight management and stop-smoking services, where appropriate.
In addition, Angela states,
“The PCN and I gained valuable knowledge and experience which is already helping us when co-designing future projects.”
One such project is the Children and Young People with Asthma initiative, that recently established interventions to enhance asthma management control in children. This project is still in on-going but it provides proactive support for an asthma review through attendance at a network CYP asthma clinic, local school engagement events, family social prescriber assessment, and peer-to-peer learning.