Podiatry community event enjoys a high footfall
East Ayrshire’s podiatry services recently invited residents to a community appointment day, providing consultations, guidance and local information all under one roof.
The East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership initiative was inspired by a similar event held in Sussex for local physiotherapy services, and was successfully piloted at East Ayrshire Community Hospital in Cumnock, where it received overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees.
The success of the pilot has paved the way for more events, the first of which took place on Saturday 20 April at the North West Area Centre in Kilmarnock.
Local community members waiting to see podiatry services were invited to the drop-in event, where they met with podiatrists for clinical assessments and advice. Attendees could also participate in functional fitness MOTs and wellbeing demonstrations, as well as speak to a variety of services providing local support in East Ayrshire.
Euan McGivern, Podiatry Service Manager at East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, explained what the event’s success means for the service:
“We regularly speak with our communities in East Ayrshire and can see the importance of making people aware of both the help we can provide through our services and the wealth of advice and support that is available from the amazing local organisations and groups in the area.
“We are continually looking at different ways to effectively deliver the information and care that people need. The community appointment day has been a really positive way to do this and we’ve been bowled over with the feedback we’ve received so far.”
Lianne McInally, Allied Health Professions Senior Manager at East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, added:
“As well as providing information and care to our communities, the events also help people find out how they can support their wider health and wellbeing.
“It has been a very inspiring event, and not just for us; other services and health and social care partnerships have shown interest in what’s been happening here in East Ayrshire. We are now looking forward to welcoming more people to our future events.”
