Wolverhampton speech and language therapist appointed to national health panel
A Wolverhampton-based clinician will be shaping the future of speech and language therapists working in critical care after joining a national panel.
Becky Edwards, a highly specialist speech and language therapist (SLT) in critical care at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, has been successfully appointed onto the NHS Elect Clinical Advisory Panel for Allied Health Professionals to develop capability frameworks for SLTs working in Critical Care.
This is a national project, and Becky is one of 10 SLTs selected onto this panel.
Having worked as an SLT for nearly six years, including two and a half years in Critical Care, Becky has been with The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust for nine months and is based at New Cross Hospital.
SLTs work with individuals who have speech, swallowing and communication impairments, and support those with tracheostomies (breathing tubes which are placed into the windpipe via the front of a person’s neck).
Becky works with patients on Critical Care and continues to see them when they’re discharged to the ward for further rehabilitation.
She said: "It was a nice surprise to receive the news and it puts Wolverhampton on the map.
“I’m really pleased and excited to start the project. We get to pioneer and guide the SLT profession working in Critical Care.
“The aim for this project is that every SLT working within Critical Care across the UK will all be working at the same standard and follow the same framework.
"At the moment, some NHS Trusts have their own competency frameworks for SLTs, but there is no national competency framework to guide SLTs working within Critical Care.
“There is lots of Critical Care experience within the SLT panel, with some therapists already really established in research and framework development and others like myself who are newer to it.”
The project is for 12 months and the panel will meet monthly on MS Teams.
“I want to help the profession within Critical Care and I think it will be really good for networking, both within the panel and nationally,” added Becky.
“It will also help signpost individuals for development needs, such as SLTs moving into new posts and SLTs trying to set up a new service within Critical Care.
"I work full-time in critical care, but there are some therapists who only cover critical care on an ad-hoc basis, so this is to help everyone who works in this area.”
Becky completed her Master’s degree in SLT at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2017. She then moved to the West Midlands to start her SLT career at Dudley’s Russells Hall Hospital, working in Stroke Rehabilitation for 18 months, and then moved to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, where she spent three and a half years.
