Parkinson's Nurse Specialists

There are three Parkinson’s Nurse Specialists for Edinburgh and the Lothians.  Alison Stewart is the lead Parkinson’s Nurse Specialist and has been in post since 1999.  In June 2009 two further Parkinson’s Nurse Specialists were employed, Allison Darbyshire and Tina Daniels.  Our  Parkinson’s secretary, Suzanne Vinall, completes the team.

Our role is to act as an expert resource to other healthcare professionals thereby improving the service they provide to people with Parkinson's and their families.

The unique role of the nurse is:

•           To provide patient education, support and identify the care needs

•           To co-ordinate services for Parkinson’s patients and their families, as part of the care team

•           To co-ordinate care for people with Parkinson’s when in hospital

•           To act as the 'middle man' between therapists, GPs and Consultants.

The Nurses have Nurse Led clinics at the Western General Hospital, St John’s Hospital, Astley Ainslie Hospital and Roodlands Hospital.  We also hold clinics in partnership with Consultants at the Royal Victoria, Liberton and Astley Ainslie hospitals.  We also see patients who are completely housebound in their homes and in Nursing Homes.

 

How to contact us

We can be contacted by telephone via an answer machine – Monday-Friday office hours: This is for non-urgent enquiries as all urgent issues should be dealt with via your GP. Please ensure you leave us a telephone contact number. We work out of the office a lot of the time and therefore cannot deal with emergency calls. We will try and return your call within two working days.    If you have an appointment or general enquiry, you could contact the Parkinson’s secretary, Suzanne Vinall, on 0131 537 5256.

Parkinson's Nurse Specialists

Royal Victoria Hospital
Edinburgh   Tel: 0131 537 5259

Alison.stewart@luht.scot.nhs.uk

Allison.darbyshire@luht.scot.nhs.uk

Tina.daniels@luht.scot.nhs.uk

 

Newsletters

We produce a newsletter three times a year. You can download the pdf versions by clicking on the links below.

• November 2010
• March 2011
• June 2011
• November 2011

Sleep Seminars

The Parkinson’s Nurse Service is working in conjunction with the Psychology dept at the Royal Victoria Hospital. We are planning a pilot series of Sleep Education seminars to be run for the benefit of people with Parkinson’s.

The aim of the course is to learn about normal sleep then understand abnormal sleep and approaches for helping you experience improved sleep.

As this is a pilot group, we are only able to offer 20 places for the programme.

We ask that at the time of application you are willing and able to commit to attend all 3 sessions. 

Seminars will be held on a fortnightly basis from 6-7 pm at the Royal Victoria Hospital on:

• Wednesday 7^th March, 2012:   Normal sleep and tools to help with the next session (Sleep Efficiency Score and sleep diaries.)
• Wednesday 24^th March, 2012: Abnormal Sleep, Psychology input
• Wednesday 4^th April, 2012: Focus specifically on feedback from group. Could involve smaller groups and individual attention if necessary.

If this course is of interest to you please complete the application form and return it to the address below.

 NB If you secure a place for the seminars and find that you are no longer able to attend, please contact a member of our team on 0131 537 5257 and let us know so that your place can be offered to someone else who may benefit from them