Dial D for dietitian

Remote working has opened up new possibilities for both patients and clinicians in Kent, with a fully-virtual team of dietitians from around the country joining #TeamKCHFT in 2023. We met the five trailblazers from all corners of the UK who are hoping to provide the best possible dietetics care for patients in Kent.

Gemma Zeybal

When dietitian Gemma Zeybel, from Wakefield, was looking for an NHS role that she could combine with caring for her two daughters, Lydia, 6 and Lucy, 4, she never imagined that her ideal job could be 250 miles from her west Yorkshire home.

Gemma said: “I qualified in 2019 and had roles locally to me in diabetes and cancer care. However, as a single parent I was looking for a home-based role that would give me a better work-life balance as I wanted to spend more time with the girls. I found the perfect job for me, as a fully-virtual specialist community dietitian with Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust.”

When the pandemic forced clinical teams to think of new ways to support people, Kent community dietitians found ways of remote working that helped both them and their patients to connect. The new model proved so successful for both clinicians and patients, the service has expanded their recruitment offer to people living around the UK to join the trust as fully virtual dietitians.

The dietetics services at the trust had already successfully trialled an idea of a fully-remote dietitian when they employed paediatric dietitian Adele Barnes to a virtual role in 2022. Adele sees patients remotely over the phone and via video call where she can observe children in their own home, creating the right environment for children to be assessed properly and reducing disruption for the rest of the family.

Dietetics Community Team Manager Heidi Rose said: “Remote working was essential during the pandemic and has now opened up the possibility to provide patients the choice of both virtual and face-to-face consultations. Employing remote dietitians has helped us with recruitment challenges and has paved the way for experienced clinicians to join our team and expand our expertise.”

Five more virtual dietitians have now been employed from around the UK, including Wakefield-based Gemma, Emma Simpson and Natalie Mardo from Manchester, Rosa Wheatley from Eastbourne and Hannah Coyne from County Tyrone.

Gemma said: “I can now do the school run every day and spend more quality time with my daughters. They are only little for such a short period of time and I want to be able to enjoy every moment."

The road from Damascus

Natalie Mardo

Syrian refugee Natalie Mardo, 31, lives in Manchester with her fiancé and is now a virtual dietitian with Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust. She said: “I was working in Damascus as a qualified dietitian and moved to the UK in 2016 to complete my Master’s degree. At the time, the civil war escalated and I applied for asylum. I was granted refugee status and started working at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, where I was supported to get my UK professional registration. I moved to Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan, but my journey to work was taking three hours every day. I started looking for a role in the community when I spotted the virtual dietitian post at KCHFT. It’s ideal for me as I enjoy the varied caseload, you really do get a bit of everything in the community and as it’s home-based I don’t have a long commute to work. We’ll be coming to Kent every couple of months to link up with the rest of the team so we don’t feel isolated. I’m looking forward to the challenge and helping patients in Kent from my Manchester home.”

Hannah’s heading home

Hannah Coyne

Hannah Coyne, 27, was working in central London for but has now moved back to her native Northern Ireland to renovate her first home and be closer to her parents. Luckily, she’s still able to carry out her role as a specialist dietitian through virtual clinics. Hannah said: “Before the pandemic I worked from home for the Food Standards Agency and I enjoyed the flexibility of the role. Joining KCHFT is such an exciting opportunity to develop my career while being able to live in my home country.”

Emily, Arlo and Aubree

Emily, Arlo and Aubree

Emily Darrington, a mum-of-three from Brabourne, near Ashford, was supported by a paediatric virtual dietitian for her two youngest children, Arlo, now aged two and Aubree, five months. She said: “Arlo was referred to a dietitian during the first Covid lockdown. It was all done virtually and it was absolutely fine, so when Aubree needed some help to gain some weight after she was born prematurely in August last year, I was happy with a virtual appointment. Adele advised me to switch to a diary-free diet myself and to use a non-dairy formula to supplement Aubree’s breastfeeds. We had two virtual appointments and it was all sorted, much easier than going to an appointment somewhere, especially with three children! It definitely worked for us.”

Further reading can be found at Complete Nutrition.