A patient helping design the new University Hospital Monklands underlined his commitment to the process by joining a workshop while he was on a dialysis machine.
Alan Welsh is one of a number of members of the community supporting the development of departmental designs following approval of Wester Moffat, east of Airdrie, as the preferred site for the new, state-of-the-art hospital.
Alan, 39, from Hamilton, didn’t want to miss the Monklands Replacement Project (MRP) workshop looking at plans for the outpatient dialysis unit and the renal ward.
So he arranged to connect to the virtual meeting on his phone while he was receiving his four-and-a-half-hour-long haemodialysis treatment in the unit at Monklands that will be replaced by the one he’s helping to create.
Alan, who’s a senior project manager, said: “I usually watch Netflix while I’m on dialysis so this was a bit different and I felt it was very worthwhile. Unless you’re a user of the service you can’t fully understand what the patient experiences, so it’s important to get our views.
“I was diagnosed with kidney disease 10 years ago and had a transplant in 2017 after a year on peritoneal dialysis. Unfortunately, the kidney disease returned and the transplant failed, so I’ve been receiving haemodialysis for the past year.
“I hope I’ll have had another kidney transplant by the time the new hospital opens and won’t still need dialysis but it’s important to help with the design of the renal services for the patients who’ll come after me.”
Alan and a fellow dialysis patient, who joined him in a previous workshop, have given input on waiting areas, changing facilities, provision of weighing scales and the importance of patient privacy.
As well as the departments Alan has been commenting on, members of the community have been supporting MRP design meetings for areas including A&E, assessment, the cancer unit, critical care, inpatient wards, outpatients and radiotherapy.
Fiona Cowan, MRP clinical lead – nursing, said: “Along with the public reps, the workshops involve staff from each department under discussion and infection prevention & control colleagues. They’re joined by project architects, members of the MRP team, our healthcare planners and lead advisors.
“We’ve received invaluable input from Alan and all the other public reps, who’ve given us feedback from the perspective of patients, carers and visitors. To help us to invite community reps, we’ve had fantastic support from the staff in our hospital services and organisations such as Maggie’s Lanarkshire and the local Disability Access Panel.”
MRP director Graeme Reid added: “I’d like to thank all the members of the community who’ve given their time to support the outline business case we’re currently developing by contributing to the design process.
“The workshops are part of the development of a ‘reference design’ for the new Monklands, which provides a blueprint for what the new hospital will look like and allows contractors who eventually bid to build the new hospital to understand the requirements and complete the detailed design.”
For full information on the Monklands Replacement Project, including frequently asked questions, visit monklands.scot.nhs.uk.
