Charlotte Lymbery

Last month, we introduced Charlotte Lymbery as our new District Physiotherapist in the Chronic Respiratory and Heart Failure Service Team. This month, we are delighted to introduce her as our new Collaborative Commissioning Change Manager. 

Charlotte’s work within the Living Well initiative has been invaluable and her commitment to improving healthcare delivery to achieve better outcomes for our patients is exactly the right fit for our team. While she leaves big shoes to fill in the physio role, we are thrilled to have her pick up where Ryan Williamson left off in the Change Manager role and we know that her time on “the frontlines” of healthcare will serve her well in this role. 

As Change Manager, Charlotte’s focus is now on working with clinicians to streamline their workflow and she is really looking forward to seeing efficiencies gained across the healthcare system for the benefits of patients and clinicians.

“Unfortunately, the data doesn’t lie about our readmission rates here in the Murrumbidgee, and after treating many patients in critical conditions in ICU, I can see the strong need to keep others out of hospital. With Living Well, we have a real opportunity to make a significant difference in people’s daily lives and their health trajectory.

“I look forward to building connections in the community. If patients take even just one thing from our time with them, then I know we are one step closer to preventing their readmission and improving their outcomes.”

If you want to get in touch with Charlotte, email Charlotte.Lymbery@health.nsw.gov.au.

Kellie Castle

Registered Nurse (RN), Narrandera

Based in Narrandera and a proud Murrumbidgee local, Kellie is excited to support her community through this important initiative.

Over the next three months Kellie will be one of two Respiratory and Heart Failure Nurse Clinicians working throughout the district to help people living with COPD and or/CHF navigate the new care pathway and assess how it is working for them.

Kellie comes to us with a wealth of experience as a RN, specifically within cardiac and respiratory chronic disease management. She genuinely believes in the Living Well Care Pathway and is passionate about supporting people to self-manage their chronic conditions.

In this role, Kellie will help develop practices in line with the new MLHD Respiratory and Heart Failure Model of Care, which include supporting patients to achieve optimal quality of life through health coaching, building health literacy, restoring functional capabilities, developing strategies to help achieve mutually agreed healthcare goals, and helping patients access clinical interventions that prevent unnecessary hospitalisation.

“It’s important to have local support in the community for patients with chronic conditions. I think patients need to feel supported and develop trust in their health providers to ultimately develop the confidence to take control of their health. They also need ongoing education and reassurance in the early stages of self-management, and to know there is another health professional to contact when they have a lengthy wait between specialist medical appointments.

“I am excited to be bringing this service to the region and am looking forward to interacting with patients and empowering them to manage their own chronic conditions. I also look forward to working collaboratively with other health professionals to ensure we achieve patient-focused care with positive outcomes, like reducing hospital admissions.”

Skye Gray

Meet Skye from MLHD. Skye is employed by MLHD as a Nurse Practitioner specialising in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Chronic Heart Failure (CHF), she also has a role as a Nurse Practitioner specialising in General Practice in a busy medical centre situated within the Riverina. 

My role within the Living Well, Your Way is to provide evidence based knowledge and experience to support the development and implementation of a care pathway for people who have COPD or CHF. 

In my practice I promote working in partnership with people with a chronic disease to improve their quality of life by assisting them with symptom management, to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and ED presentations. Early intervention to manage changes in symptoms can allow the person with COPD/CHF to be successfully managed by their local GP, and to recover in their familiar home environment. 

Living Well. Your Way project is important to the region as it promotes a continuum of care between the community services and the hospital setting. The project incorporates all stakeholders that have a direct and indirect impact on the care pathway, to promote best outcomes for people with COPD/CHF.

I feel that I am well positioned working within the public and private health sectors to advocate a smooth transition of care for people with COPD/CHF. I have been working alongside people with chronic disease for over 10 years. I am excited to be part of this project to develop a care pathway, improve access to specialist services and implement resources that may lessen the symptom burden of living with a chronic disease. I believe that it is paramount for the healthcare team to work in partnership beside people with COPD/CHF to empower them to take control of their chronic disease and self- manage to the top of their capacity.

Winston Piddington

Associate Director – Health Costing & Reimbursement – IQVIA Australia

Meet Winston from IQVIA. IQVIA has been contracted to work with the Living Well team to cost the technicalities of the new care models to better understand what it will take to deliver this care, who will provide the care, what it will cost and who will pay for it.

“It’s a small but important role, turning the new Living Well, Your Way care pathway into reality. From our work, it’s easy to see that delivering better care models can be cheaper than current care models, not to mention more convenient for the patient and better for their health.

“I have an elderly sick uncle with chronic airways disease, whose medication is extremely well managed by his ever-efficient, caring, and thoughtful local pharmacist, and the idea of having the right funding in place to extend her services to people like my sick uncle just makes me happy. It makes you think that your job is worthwhile and that this back-of-office ‘nerdy numbers man’ can assist in getting the right care in the right place, and the right funding to flow through to it.”