Dressing Cupboards, Dressing Bags and New Wound Formulary
NHS Western Isles is delighted to announce that its Dressings Project was made live today (Wednesday 18th August).
A total of 26 “Dressing Cupboards”, or locations across NHS Western Isles sites e.g. primary and secondary care clinical areas, including Podiatry, have been developed as part of the project. The Dressing Cupboards will enable healthcare professionals to access wound care products for patients under the care of NHS Western Isles.
In addition, Community Nursing staff have also been provided with dressing bags, to enable them to store and carry dressings for use during their community visits.
Dr. David Rigby, local GP, said “The move to all wound care being provided by the Health Board Community Nursing Teams under the new GP contract created the opportunity to review how patients were assessed and managed for wound care in the Western Isles. The production of a mutually agreed central formulary will ensure that patients get the right dressing at the right time in all healthcare locations. This will also aid in easing the workload on Primary Care teams as the Community Nursing teams will have direct access to all the supplies they need direct from NHSWI stores with stocked dressings cupboards placed at all necessary locations”
“The dressings project has shown great innovation and teamwork from Rosemary Macritchie, the Primary Care Pharmacy Team, the Stores Team and Community Nursing. Their perseverance to bring this to fruition will ensure that patients receive a consistent, efficient supply of appropriate, evidence based wound care across the Western Isles.”
“By centralising the provision of dressings and creating a dedicated formulary, this project will help reduce waste and variation in line with the principles of Realistic Medicine, and ensure consistency of approach across all healthcare settings in the Western Isles.”
All healthcare professionals will also adhere to the new NHS Western Isles Wound Care Formulary, which has been created based on evidence and experience gathered locally, and has a specific focus on effectiveness and wear-time to minimise the amount of face-to-face contact with patients. However, it is expected that occasionally the need for “off formulary prescribing” will arise. On these occasions, community pharmacies will continue to receive prescriptions for these items as well as compression and Lymphoedema garments.
Rosemary MacRitchie, NHS Western Isles Clinical Nurse Specialist Tissue Viability/Continence Adviser, said “’We are thrilled to be launching the Dressings Project today, and the partnership working on this project shows how much can be achieved together. This is a major service change to benefit staff and patients alike, and will ensure a patient-focused, point of need system, and guarantee an effective, efficient, and seamless wound care service across the Western Isles’.
There are many benefits to the Dressings Project, including ensuring the provision of an evidence-based, cost effective and patient focused local service, and enabling wound care leads the opportunity to review current local practice.
In addition, Clinical Reasoning forms will now be used to monitor the use of antimicrobial dressings, and Transfer of Care forms have been designed to ensure continuity of care for patients being transferred between any area e.g from hospitals within the Western Isles to care homes or the patient’s own home (and vice versa). All forms can be accessed on the Intranet via the Tissue Viability & Continence section, located within Dressings Project link.
Gillian McCannon, NHS Western Isles Chair, said “I am delighted to support the launch of the new dressing and wound formulary project. It brings together evidence-based research and practice and will improve continuity of care which is patient focussed.
“Thank you to the project team for all your hard work in bringing together such an important aspect of patient care within NHS Western Isles. It demonstrates what can be achieved through collaborative working and partnership.”
All patients that currently have wound care products on repeat prescription will also be reviewed to ensure continuity of care.
Patients who have historically managed their own wounds and do not currently have regular input from a healthcare professional, will be referred to their GP Practice or Community Nurse for review as appropriate, if wound care products are required.
