NHS Lanarkshire

Monklands, Wishaw and Hairmyres hospitals received the thumbs up after an Australian VIP visit.

A team of senior policy advisors, senior nursing and medical staff from the Western Australian Government and health service were touring hospitals in the UK.

They are planning to introduce an Emergency Access programme in Western Australia and toured various sites in the UK with experience in this area.

Lanarkshire and Lothian were the only health boards they visited in Scotland.

The Australian visitors were impressed with the dedication of NHS Lanarkshire's staff and the efforts to improve patient care.

Amanda Cipriani, Project Co-ordinator, Health Reform Implementation Taskforce, Western Australia Health, said: “The group felt the Lanarkshire leg of the tour was particularly valuable, given the similarities between the Lanarkshire sites and those in Perth, WA.

“The group was particularly impressed by the collaboration between the sites they visited and the staffs’ professionalism and willingness to strive for excellence.

“This included the excellent processes developed, such as bed management conference calls, the traffic light process for the medical assessment unit, and management of aged care patients.

“The teamwork between all levels of staff, including executive directors and managers and the expertise displayed by the sites in relation to data management were all impressive.

“In short the group were impressed with the initiatives being implemented in Lanarkshire and thoroughly enjoyed the generous hospitality they received.”

Doctor Veronica Devlin, NHS Lanarkshire’s Emergency Access Programme Manager, who helped organise the visit, said: “The visit proved very worthwhile for both the visitors and ourselves.

“We were able to share good working practices and the Australian group were impressed with the steps NHS Lanarkshire has taken to improve patient care and reduce waiting times.

“We were able to share learning from the work done in the past few years by the Unscheduled Care Collaborative, and talk about progress with the Emergency Access Programme.

“Meeting the staff who really do the job is much more valuable than just reading or hearing about a project. ”

The Australian visitors met with senior nursing, medical and management teams at the three hospitals before conducting a tour to see how NHS Lanarkshire is helping to improve access to emergency treatment for patients through a host of initiatives.
This included visiting the Emergency Response Centre (ERC).

The ERC is a single point of access for GP’s arranging emergency admission, and is a joint project with the Scottish Ambulance Service.

This ensures patients are directed to the most appropriate place, and are seen by the most appropriate person.

The visitors also learned how the new MINTS (Minor/Major Injury/Illness Nurse Treatment Service) nurses helped accident and emergency achieve the Scottish Government’s four-hour waiting time target.

These nurses independently manage the care of patients presenting with minor injuries as part of the new See and Treat service in A&E, which means both nurses and doctors can treat and discharge patients with minor injuries.

Previously all patients would need to see a doctor before being discharged, which could result in delays.