Health and social care colleagues in North Lanarkshire are using CARS in the drive to avoid patients going in to hospital and to ensure they are discharged as quickly as possible when admitted.

One patient is praising CARS (Community Assessment and Rehabilitation Service) after it got her back on her feet.

Margaret Tulips, from Holytown, said the Health & Social Care North Lanarkshire initiative boosted her recovery from surgery to replace both her knees.

Margaret, 66, said: “CARS is fantastic – I have recovered so well I have gone from needing support to get around to living independently back at home without home carers to assist me.”

Fiona McGinness, a CARS occupational therapist working within the Bellshill Locality, explained: “After seven weeks of inpatient occupational therapy and physiotherapy, Margaret still needed further rehab. A referral was made to CARS and an intermediate care bed was provided at Muirpark Care centre, a council short-stay facility.

“The CARS team visited Margaret twice a day for intensive therapy and Muirpark staff worked with us to encourage her to improve her mobility.”

When Margaret was able to get about well enough to return home her house was assessed for adaptations.

Fiona added: “The great thing about the partnership between health and social care staff is that we could quickly access the social work system to order any equipment Margaret needed.

“We also seamlessly to put in place a reablement package of care, which was frequently reviewed by the CARS occupational therapist, and reduced as Margaret’s functional abilities improved.”