The Friends of Datchet Health Centre

Friends of the Datchet Health Centre (FODHC) is a charity that registered in 2003 – charity number 1098325. It was established because over the years, some money had been donated to the health centre by well-wishers. For reasons of probity, the partners wanted to keep separate any donated money from the general finances of the health centre itself. In broad terms, the charity exists to help and support health related issues within the local community. The stated objectives of the charity are as follows:

1. For the relief of sickness and the protection and preservation of good health, particularly, but not exclusively, by the provision of equipment which neither the doctors nor the National Health Service are able to provide.
2. To assist or promote any charitable organisation or charitable purpose relating to healthcare as the trustees shall think fit.

The Trustees meet quarterly, and the minutes of the most recent meeting may be seen by clicking here: Minutes of the latest Friends of DHC meeting

What are the funds used for?
Examples of activities and projects that the charity has supported in the past include the following:

• The provision of a specialist respiratory nurse in the local community to help identify, assess, manage and monitor the treatment of those people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and also those people with more severe asthma. This ‘Breath of Fresh Air’ project supported and augmented the respiratory services already provided by the health centre.
• The provision of plastic medication boxes known as ‘Metered Dose Systems’ for vulnerable patients. These boxes, commonly known as Dosette Boxes or Nomad Boxes, store and display medication for a week at a time. They provide a safer way of supplying oral medication and are especially useful for those people on multiple drugs.
• The training of a phlebotomist who worked at the health centre.
• The arrangement of child care during a period of parental illness within a vulnerable family.
• The purchase of a raised armchair in the waiting room for people who have difficulty sitting down on or getting up from the normal waiting room chairs.
• The purchase of a wheelchair for use by people who have difficulty getting into the health centre from the car park.
• The purchase of items of clinical equipment e.g. an electrically controlled examination couch, oxometers (to measure blood oxygen saturation), a spirometer (to measure lung function).
• The purchase of pedometers for the Datchet Health Centre Walking Group.

Currently, the FODHC offers financial support for the DHC Patient Participation Group. The charity covers the expenses incurred in producing the quarterly DHC Newsletter. It also provides financial support for the annual Health Educational Meetings which have proven to be so successful. Later this year it plans to purchase some clinical equipment for the health centre (see below) but aims to raise some funds first.

Fund-raising
The charity not only receives income from donations, for which the trustees are very grateful. It also arranges and supports fund-raising events and projects. The trustees and friends have taken part in a number of sponsored activities for the charity in the past, including half-marathons and bike-rides.

During 2010, the trustees hope to raise some money to allow the charity to support the health centre to provide some clinical equipment for the new training wing. This is an exciting building project that has been supported by a grant from the Department of Health. A first floor extension to the existing building will provide the health centre with an additional two consulting rooms, a tutorial room, an enlarged upstairs waiting area and some much needed storage space. The project will allow the DHC to become a training practice i.e. a practice that helps to train doctors to gain experience of general practice and to become fully trained GP’s. The building project is due to be completed in September 2010.

With this project in mind, the trustees are planning activities to raise funds. Already, the DHC Walking Group has been reorganized so that its members now contribute an annual subscription to the charity: subscriptions have raised more than £400 so far this year. Dr Mick Watts raised £300 with his Card-less Christmas scheme. It is likely that a FODHC team will enter the 2010 Windsor Half Marathon to raise funds and a separate team will enter a sponsored bike ride. We also hope to have a stall at Datchet Village Fete. We are still thinking of new ideas and if anybody wishes to join us, please contact Karen Holmes at the health centre on 01753 541268.

How to make a donation
Donations for the charity are always welcome. Please contact Karen Holmes at the health centre on 01753 541268 if you would like to make a donation.

Where possible, where the donor is a UK tax payer, we encourage the use of Gift Aid so that the charity is able to reclaim the tax paid. To make it easier, this can be done by completing the details of the donation on the Just Giving website at:

www.justgiving.com/datchethealthcentre