Community Nursing and Health Visitors
Community Nursing for the Orkney Mainland is provided from the The Balfour, Kirkwall as well as the Stromness, Dounby, and South Ronaldsay Surgeries
All of the island GP Practices have either Nurse Practitioners or Community Nurses based within the Practice. Of these islands North Ronaldsay, Papa Westray, Flotta, Shapinsay, Eday and Rousay have no resident GP.
Health Visiting is mainly provided from the mainland with the staff "adopting" islands and visiting them as necessary. Midwifery and Community Psychiatric Nursing are also provided in this way. However, the frequency of these visits depends on the needs of the caseloads.
Within Community Nursing, we have a number of peripatetic Specialist Nurses:
- Diabetic Specialist Nurse
- Specialist School Nurses
The School Nurses and Health Visitors are part of the Children's Services Department and do not operate an emergency callout system over 24 hours, but all other staff can be contacted via pager by contacting The Balfour Switchboard. Although based in Kirkwall, the School Nursing Department covers all schools in Orkney.
Referral to the Community Nurses is welcome from any source.
Health Visitors
The Health Visiting team
Families with children under five have access to a named Health Visitor who carry out routine health assessments with your child in line with the Health Visitor Pathway set by Scottish Government.
The team are located in three bases but cover the whole of Mainland Orkney and the Isles.
What does the team do?
The Health Visiting Team follows the National Health Visitor Pathway which offers a core of 11 visits either in your own home or a clinic setting/ nursery setting.
Additional visits may be offered following assessment for support and advice. Advice and support can be offered around a number of areas including but not limited to:
- Infant feeding
- Safe sleep
- Emotional wellbeing of parents following the birth of a child
- Weaning
- Minor health concerns
- Toileting
- Growth monitoring
- Antenatal support
- Behaviour
- Child development
Contact Details:
- Kirkwall Health Visitors, The Balfour, Kirkwall
Telephone: 01856 888115
- Dounby Health Visitors, Dounby Health Centre
Telephone: 01856 771150/ 771618
- Stromness Health Visitors, Stromness Health Centre
Telephone: 01856 851760
Or via email ork.namedpersonservice@nhs.scot
Useful Links:
Feeding Your Baby
- Fantastic Breastfeeding App Anya - 24/7 Tailored Healthcare Support.
- Healthy Eating For Families | HENRY
- Parentclub We’re here for you | Parent Club
- UNICEF Baby Friendly The Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative
- First Steps Nutrition First Steps Nutrition Trust
Financial Support
- Tackling Financial Insecurity Together | Turn2us
- Free and impartial help with money, backed by the government | MoneyHelper
- THAW Orkney
- Orkney Charitable Trust - Helping Young People in Orkney
Play and Development
- Great support for development BBC Tiny Happy People
- Baby Buddy App The Baby Buddy app
- Parentclub We’re here for you | Parent Club
- Childsmile Childsmile – Improving the oral health of children in Scotland
Communication
- Parentclub We’re here for you | Parent Club
- Great support for development BBC Tiny Happy People
- Bookbug Bookbug - Scottish Book Trust
Safety
- Safe sleep Home | The Lullaby Trust
- ICON Home - ICON Cope
Parental Support
- New dad support New Dad Support — Dads Rock
- ICON Home - ICON Cope
- Inspiring Scotland Home - Inspiring Scotland
- Non emergency health support Home | NHS 24