The Royal Free Hospital Kidney Patients’ Association (RFHKPA) has traditionally held its committee meetings on the first Monday of the month in the Atrium on the ground floor of the Royal Free London Hospital (RFH).
Our practice was to invite members, who had expressed an interest in volunteering to help the KPA, to attend a meeting in order to introduce themselves and learn about the charity’s work. Occasionally, a guest speaker (e.g a Royal Free staff member), would be invited to speak on a topic of interest to our members.
However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all meetings are currently being held remotely, via Zoom. This will continue for the foreseeable future until it is possible to hold meetings at the hospital sites.
Nevertheless, as a committee we have started to think about life after Covid and to plan for the future. Committee meetings will continue to focus on topics of general interest, with guest speakers, and on matters of direct interest to members, e.g. ideas for social activities. These meetings could themselves be treated as social events and should be “fun”.
As our registered membership has recently increased significantly, we plan to hold these meetings in rotation, at the four dialysis sites (Tottenham Hale, St Pancras (“Mary Rankin”), Barnet and Edgware) and at the Royal Free, in order for them to be accessible to the maximum number of members. Larger meetings, such as the RFHKPA AGM, will usually be held at the Royal Free, once the hospital Covid-19 restrictions have been fully lifted.
Subjects chosen for committee meetings will still be those in which patients would be interested or of particular concern to the location of the meeting (for example, issues relevant to Barnet). They may still include presentations by appropriate Royal Free staff and discussions of KPA events (both social and fund raising). Sub-groups may be appropriate for these and can be set up as required to run specific events or projects These sub-committees will meet on Zoom and report their progress to a full committee meeting as necessary.
Initially, of course, these meetings will be held via Zoom.
We will issue a programme of committee meetings to members via email. Details of planned committee meetings will also be posted on the RFHKPA website:
This will be supplemented by leaflets sent to the matron or lead nurse for the unit where each meeting is to be held. The meeting details will include the Zoom link information, if the meeting is to be held online.
