There was a warm welcome from the leadership triumvirate as the latest Board walkround took place at University Hospital Hairmyres.
Interim Deputy Site Director Erin McEwan, Chief Doctor Claire McDougall and Chief Nurse Lise Axford briefed the visitors before they toured four key departments.
At the Emergency Department, Dr Andrew Palombo, Deputy Chief of Medical Services, told visitors about the Front Door Target Operating Model, including REACT (Rapid Emergency Assessment Care Team).
Also highlighted was work with ambulatory care colleagues to establish streaming of self-presenting patients to ambulatory care from REACT, preparations for the upcoming e-Triage system, new recruitment and ongoing work on staff wellbeing.
The Emergency Assessment Unit, which incorporates ambulatory care, is next to ED and sees patients sent by GPs.
Stressing the ease of using our new virtual wards, consultant Dr Gillian Mulholland emphasised close working with FNC+Plus including pathways for patients to be signposted to ambulatory care.
Underlining the department’s enthusiastic multi-disciplinary team, the group also heard about the link with ED to stream self-presenting patients, and use of advanced practitioner-led pathways such as deep vein thrombosis.
The Vascular Unit on ward 8 provides inpatient care for the regional vascular service, which looks after patients from NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Dumfries and Galloway.
The visitors were impressed to hear the infrastructure for the regional service includes the 30-bed vascular ward, new and newly-refurbished theatres and a vascular lab for non-invasive imaging.
The group also saw the Surgical Assessment Unit on the refurbished ward 4, which is the receiving area for surgical patients including general surgery, ophthalmology and vascular. It also provides a consultant-led-and-delivered emergency general surgery service.
Staff said the walkround was very valuable, giving them a chance to meet senior leaders to tell them about successes and discuss current issues.
That view was echoed by NHS Lanarkshire Board Chair Martin Hill, who was joined on the tour by fellow non-executive directors Siobhan White and Sylvia Stewart, who’s also our Employee Director.
Martin said: “I was very impressed by the high quality of care being offered. I was particularly interested to hear about the how these services assist patient flow and the use of FNC+Plus, which provides access to our new virtual wards model.”
Also on the walkround were Russell Coulthard, Director of Acute Services, Sharon Murray, Acute Nurse Director, and Amanda Minns, from the Quality Directorate.
