At DHU Healthcare we provide a wide range of urgent and emergency, out of hours, community and 111 services across the Midlands area and beyond.
We like to tell you about the different people who provide quality care for our patients and today we go to Northamptonshire where we caught up with Shirley Russell, a receptionist based at Daventry, who has dedicated more than 30 years to the region’s health services.
Shirley said: “I’d just started a family when I began my career with Northampton Medical Services in May 1990, working 40 hours a month. It involved taking calls that I could then pass on to the Doctors over the radio who conducted home visits. There were no clinics back then and, having small children at the time, the hours suited my work life balance well.
“As the kids grew up, Northampton merged with Kettering and Daventry in 2008 and there was more scope for longer hours, so I started to reduce my out of hours reception time and take on an admin role during the day. I think it was in 2010 when I dropped my reception time completely and became a Service Delivery Manager, moving to Operations Manager where I stayed for five years.
“It was quite an involved role, but I took early retirement in 2016 to ensure I could accommodate my personal commitments as a carer for my mother. I went back to reception out of hours in Daventry where again, it suited the set of circumstances I had at the time.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the role before and I still do now. We see a lot of people coming through the door, either referred from 111 or as drop ins, so I will take their details and let the clinicians know when they’re here. I keep an eye on the patients when they arrive, alerting the clinicians if I feel they are worsening. During Covid it was different with most consultations being carried out by the clinicians over the phone, however we still had calls to take from ambulance crews wishing to speak to a clinician.
“I’m very grateful that the job has given me the perfect work life balance throughout my career as I’ve gone through the family change. I could look after my children and do the school run when they were young, develop my role as they grew older and now scale it back again to help care for my Mum. It’s flexible and family is so important to me, it allows me to devote time to both and that makes a difference in being able to enjoy the job.
“I work with lots of different people and that keeps me on my toes. I work eight shifts over a six-week rota, four or five hours each time so I see different drivers, nurses and doctors throughout my time here and like to get to know them. I’ve worked in the region for so long that I have a good insight into how the system works, so to see how different people bring different skills and suggestions to the way we work is fascinating to see.
“I enjoy working for DHU, it’s a bigger organisation than we’ve been used to before in Northants so we have more support in terms of HR, ordering medicines, stock and training. Previously it had to be done by each individual base but it’s much more co-ordinated now. The team as well are very approachable and I find if something needs doing then it gets done which is all you can ask for.
“There’s a lot about my job that makes me proud but when a person comes out from clinic and praises the service, it doesn’t get much better than that. Arranging a home visit for an elderly person who is living on their own. I help to facilitate that, knowing that the support is there for them and that you are part of that system, making a difference to their lives, it’s one of the reasons I love this job and can’t imagine not doing it.”
Thanks to Shirley for telling us about her role and keep your eyes peeled for DHU’s next #WhatDoYouDo.
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