Page 5 - PBCMarch2020

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 17 No.1 March 2020 5

Past President’s Charity Update

As mentioned in the Garden Party report, the Club have
amassed over £7000 in charitable donations (fines & arm
twisting etc) for the Rockinghorse Charity. In the October issue
you will have seen my mugshot handing over the cheque for the
first two bilirubin jaundice detection monitors, to the Sussex
Community mid-wives, with amazing results.. With further monies
collected at the Golf Day (thank you Smithers) and Hampton
Court Ride (thank you Pruffle), plus the December Garden Party, we have been able to fund
a further four monitors which will be a huge benefit all involved. This has been greatly
appreciated by the mid-wives as well as Rockinghorse and I subsequently received the
following thank yous from both, which are published below:

‘Dear Roger,
Please see below the latest update from Kelly Parker the Midwifery Matron about the incredible impact of the
bilirubinometers. Thank you so much for choosing Rockinghorse. Hollie’
‘Hi Hollie, This is so fabulous to hear! The posiOve impact these meters have had is ongoing! I will provide you with
some more figures of just how many babies have been assessed using these meters but the impact is beyond measure
in other ways. Just the difference this has made to families in terms of their Ome and energy not being used up siUng
in A&E or Bolney Ward waiOng for this really quick test whilst the busy staff a[end to more pressing ma[ers and unwell
paOents. The difficult conversaOons that midwives had been having to have in the home when they discuss with the
family why they need to go and trek to hospital with their brand new babies just a day or two a]er they’ve been
discharged from hospital. All of the stress and hassle has been removed from our working lives in that respect which is
priceless. In terms of number of babies we have seen and tested in the community with our exisOng bilirubinometers
funded via the Rockinghorse Charity, the addiOonal four monitors will only increase this further which is just brilliant:

For the whole of BSUH (PRH and RSCH) for the months Oct/Nov and Dec we tested 158 babies and of these babies 13
of them were referred into hospital for further tests. Of the 13, only 8 of the babies were re-admi[ed for treatment
such as blood tests, UV light therapy or IV fluids.

So this means these meters are helping to keep the work flow through A&E to just essenOal work by allowing us to
screen these babies in community seUngs and then only refer in those babies with high levels of bilirubin for further
review whilst the rest remain under the care of the community midwives. Also we knew last year that lots of families
would decline or delay taking their babies in to the hospital for various reasons but o]en to do with distance, transport,
other children etc so there was always the concern that an unwell baby would not get the treatment they needed
which could lead to devastaOng consequences. So those 8 babies that have been admi[ed and treated have potenOally
been kept safe by the provision of this screening test in the community.
Thank you again to the Pickwick Bicycle Club and Rockinghorse Charity for donaOng to BSUH maternity and helping us
to keep these precious babies safe. Kind regards, Kelly Parker- Community Midwifery Matron’
I can say no more than a BIG THANK YOU to everybody that made a donation during my
Presidential year; the difference it has made to so many families is something for everyone
to be proud of. Winkle Snr