News Archive 2021

  MKCCG - NEW YEAR REOPENING 2022

Happy New Year to all MKCCG members, staff, volunteers and friends.



This is to confirm that we are restarting our exercise sessions on Wednesday 5^th January 2022 as planned. For the time being we will still be following the same COVID-safe procedures as we did before Christmas. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

MKCCG EARLY CLOSURE - COVID-19: OMICRON (17 Dec 2021)

In the light of the rapid spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the sessions on the final two days of our 2021 programme – so the sessions on Monday 20^th and Tuesday 21^st December will not take place.

At the moment we still plan to restart our exercise sessions on Wednesday 5^th January 2022 but will continue to monitor the situation and let you know if our plans change.

Our latest issue of Cardiographic is now available to download. Including Christmas messages and a welcome to new staff.

Click for December's Cardiographic!

We were recently made aware of a webinar from NHS organisations in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire that may be of interest to our members. The webinar, about high blood pressure, gave guests the opportunity to ask questions of leading experts in their field and learn about how they can take part in research.

We didn’t hear about the event in time to let you join in but here is a
link to the recording of the event in case you’re interested.

On 22^nd October we held our first face-to-face AGM for two years. Attendance was only a third of normal but that was perhaps understandable in the circumstances. You can read the full minutes of the meeting in the Admin Archive in the Members area of the website.

At the AGM our Chairman, Ivan, reported that Anthea Phillips who had served as Chairman for 11 years, had accepted a position as Honorary Vice-President in recognition of her contribution to the group.

Each of the Officers plus our Manager, Hayley, presented their reports. Hayley’s in particular contains much detail covering the past 18 months and reviews the current state of our group. The election of Officers and Members to the Management Committee was confirmed.

Our Treasurer, Nigel, advised that there was no proposal to increase membership fees but that the drop in numbers of members and monies raised for the group meant we would need to keep a close eye of our financial situation.

Finally, the resolution for the proposed change to our mission statement was approved unanimously.

After the meeting we were able to enjoy a glass of wine or juice kindly organised by John and Brenda Folker.

Our Management Committee met again on 20 September 2021.

MKCCG members can find the Minutes of this meeting in the Admin Document Archive. 

At the AGM on Friday 22^nd October at Hinton Hall, starting at 7.30 p.m., members will be asked to vote on a proposal from the Management Committee for a change to the wording of our ‘objects’ (the purpose for which the charity has been set up).

The thinking behind this proposal is set out in the Agenda which is now available on the noticeboard at Hinton Hall and in the Document Archive of the Members Area.

Also just added to the papers for the AGM (and also in the Document Archive) is the Report and Financial Statements document for 2021.

For the first time since COVID-19 appeared, Stan and the Social Committee were able to organise a trip for members.

The visit to the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway took place on Saturday 9th October 2021. Stan says "The weather was really good and we had a great time."

Click for the photo gallery.

We are in the process of migrating documents from our old website server to the new, starting with the Admin Archive.

Whilst we are being as careful as we can, if you click on a link and find a document is missing please email the details to the Webmaster who will fix the link. Many thanks.

This year’s Annual General Meeting takes place at Hinton Hall starting at 7.30 p.m. on Friday 22^nd October. This is our first face-to-face AGM for two years. During that time much has happened! This is your group. Come along and have a say in how it is run.

Nomination forms for election to the Management Committee as an Officer or Session Representative are now available on the noticeboard and in the Document Archive of the Members Area.

Completed nomination forms should be put in the Secretary’s tray in the Office by 12 noon on Friday 15^th October, posted to Hinton Hall or scanned and emailed to secretary@mkccg.org.

We have archived a lot of older material from the Home page, Covid-19 News and MKCCG News pages. Nothing has been deleted. Items have been moved to a new News Archive where they are stored by year.

The top menu has been rationalised. No pages have been removed. All pages are listed in the Site Index.

Following a successful trial of the Covid-safe use of the gym at our Phase IV session, we are now ready to add use of the gym to our regular exercise sessions from Monday 9^th August.

We have laid out the equipment with social distancing in mind, introduced a one-way system and will ask members to wipe down the contact areas (handles, seats, control panels) with the wipes we provide after each use. This is now common practice in public gyms.

We will keep the current pattern of early and late back-to-back sessions for now but will include use of the gym on alternate weeks, after a warm-up downstairs. Staff and Blue Shirts will explain more at each session.

Our Management Committee held another face-to-face meeting on 26 July 2021.

MKCCG members can find the Minutes of this meeting in the Admin Document Archive. 

From Monday 19^th July 2021 most of the legal restrictions to control COVID-19 will be removed. As our members are relatively vulnerable, we will continue with the current precautions for a bit longer.

So for a while after 19th July we won’t make any changes to our arrangements for exercising. At the same time, we are planning a cautious expansion of our sessions.

With regard to masks, for the time being we plan to continue to ask members and staff to wear a face covering while entering, leaving or moving around Hinton Hall (unless you have exemption). You can remove your face covering for exercise.

The government also encourages organisations with higher risk settings or membership to use the NHS COVID Pass as a condition of entry. We at MKCCG do not plan to do this as we trust our members to stay away if there is any doubt about their COVID status.

We have bought two more portable air purifiers (like those downstairs) for use in the gym upstairs. We are carrying out a trial of the use of the gym with equipment spaced out and wiped down after use by each member, with a one-way route around the gym. Once we’re happy that this works, we will include the gym in our regular sessions.

Responsibility for decisions about COVID-19 will now  pass to the organisation, but the government is still urging caution. MKCCG have a legal duty to manage risks to those using our building and services. The latest version of our health and safety risk assessment for COVID-19 is posted on the noticeboard at Hinton Hall and also on our website.

At MKCCG we are currently following all of the recommendations in the government’s guidance on how to stay safe after 19^th July and plan to continue with these practices for the time being.

We hope you appreciate our plan for cautious progress, all the while keeping an eye on any changes of advice from government and professional bodies. Thank you for your patience and if you have any questions about arrangements, please contact your session rep.

Based on advice from the government and professional bodies, from Monday 28 June 2021 we will be introducing the following changes to our exercise sessions:

• We will be doubling the number of members invited to attend each ‘mini session’ from 10 to 20. We will still be running two back-to-back sessions so that members can continue to maintain social distancing for the time being.
• We are changing the frequency from every other week to every week so you can exercise more often.
• The phase IV and COPD/heart failure service will start delivering face to face sessions from 28th June. Initially the programme will address the backlog of referrals that accumulated during closure of the facility.
• We will no longer take your temperature on arrival – the advice is that it is no longer thought to be a good predictor of coronavirus.
• As before, if you feel unwell or have new symptoms of any kind you should stay at home. It would help if you could let us know if you’re not going to attend by emailing enquiries@mkccg.org or calling 01908 632999.
• We encourage you to take a lateral flow test twice a week, as promoted by the government. You can find out more about this on the home page of our website at the end of the 15^th May announcement on Face Coverings.

We ask that members and volunteers bear with us as we introduce the change to weekly sessions. We thank everyone for their patience and understanding where we have had to change start times for some members in order to cater for the larger numbers and take into consideration each individual’s fitness needs.

Our Management Committee was at last able to hold a face-to-face meeting on 23 June 2021 – our first since before the pandemic. As you can imagine there was a lot to discuss!

MKCCG members can find the Minutes of this meeting in the Admin Document Archive. 

As we hope you will know, on Monday 17 May we restarted exercise classes at Hinton Hall.

So far, we haven’t been able to operate with the 30-50 or so members per session that was possible before the pandemic.

Following advice from the government and professional bodies we were only able to have small numbers at each session (a maximum of 10) so we can maintain safe social distancing between members. To allow more members to start exercising we doubled up with back-to-back sessions but made them shorter to fit into the time slot. To enable us to exercise as many members as possible we had to schedule members to exercise every other week.

The reaction of members and staff to the re-opening has been very positive. Everyone feels that it’s a welcome step on the return to ‘normality’.

Moving forward we will have to keep some restrictions in place but will be guided by the government and professional bodies. We are planning that, as restrictions are eased later this month, we will increase numbers to 20 x 2 for each shortened session, which will allow us to invite members to exercise weekly.

This is all subject to there being no changes in government advice or restrictions.

We will continue to keep everyone informed as we move forward.

As you know, we have re-started our exercise sessions on a limited basis. Our continuing priority is the health, safety and well-being of our members, staff, volunteers and visitors. To achieve this, we’ve further revised our assessment of risks at Hinton Hall based on the most recent advice and guidance provided by the Government and industry bodies.

Read more ...

The announcement below, Returning to exercise - Face Coverings Update 15th May 2021, mentions the use of lateral flow tests to help slow the spread of the virus.

In considering use of these tests, you may find the following information helpful:

How to test yourself for COVID-19 Easy read booklet - (Download)

NHS - A guide to COVID-19 self testing (Rapid Lateral Flow Test) - (Video)

A few days ago, the government published new guidance about the wearing of face coverings in exercise classes such as ours. As we restart our classes on 17 May we are using this guidance to make some changes to our rules about face coverings. People are no longer required to wear face coverings when taking part in sport and physical activity. However, the government strongly advises that when you are mixing indoors with people not in your own household, you should keep your distance and wear a face covering.



Read more ...

Dickie Ticker Draw Winners (3 January)