The Evening Times ran an article about figures in a new report showing that women from Lanarkshire experience higher-than-average rates of stillbirth and neonatal deaths than other parts of Scotland. The region recorded the second-highest rate in Scotland with 6.42 deaths per 1,000 births. However it is worth noting that the figure of 7,096 Lanarkshire resident […]
Testing times
Redesigning general practice in Lanarkshire is at the heart of transforming primary care so it’s been full steam ahead for this area of work.
A new team of Advanced Nurse Practitioners in training, a new Senior Nurse for practice nursing, and signpost training for practice receptionists are a few of the initiatives that have successfully been put in place to support general practice in Lanarkshire.
And there’s been very encouraging results for a test of change involving Advanced Practice Physiotherapists (APP) as first responders instead of GPs for patients with MSK conditions.
Three Practices in Alison Lea Medical Centre in East Kilbride were the first test cluster and went live in July 2017. Early results from the first, six weeks showed that 218 patients were booked to see the APP instead of the GP therefore freeing up a significant number of GP appointments
Planning is underway to introduce the APP role to a second cluster in Newmains Health Centre and to a single GP Practice in Shotts Health Centre with recruitment expected to be in place in Jan 2018.
The next test of change will be the introduction of Occupational Therapists in GP Practices. The OTs will be assessing the impact of the developmental, physical and mental health conditions of the referred patients’ and their ability to participate in activities that are important to them, and in devising interventions plans to facilitate occupational engagement.
Comments are closed.