During a visit to the Downe Hospital, Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt saw first-hand the “different pathways” patients can use to access the Urgent Care Centre, Rapid Assessment Centre and the Hospital At Home service.
The Health Minister described how the individual units at the hospital are, “delivering really important facilities and services for patients and service users.”
The Minister continued, “These are ways of doing things better, ways of delivering better outcomes for patients and giving them better pathways to the help that they need and indeed, keeping them out of these hard pressed Emergency Departments around the country.
“The Downe Hospital does so much good work and these units are delivering really important facilities and services for patients. Urgent Care Centre staff are on hand, delivering high quality care to patients and to signpost those to the most appropriate service to meet their need if it’s not in the Downe.”
Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Dr Joe McKeever shared how the Health Minister took time to engage with staff and said, “We were really pleased to see the Health Minister and for him to see some of the activity that is happening within the Urgent Care Centre. The visit shows the staff that the Minister is interested in what is happening and to see the resources that are available.”
Dr McKeever continued, “Assessing patients through Phone First has allowed us to avoid secondary transfers from ambulances, to make sure we get patients seen in the right place, at the right time and how that will hopefully enable us to use our resources better and prevent patients from coming to harm by arriving at an inappropriate site for the treatment of their condition.”
“It is a comfort to the local community, knowing that if you can be served here with the resources we have available, we will make that happen to the best of our ability.”
Assistant Director of Unscheduled Care, Brian McFetridge commented, “This has been a great opportunity for the Health Minister to hear from staff about the different pathways patients can use to access the Urgent Care Centre and the Rapid Assessment Centre. These pathways help patients avoid, at the minute, busy and congested Emergency Departments and allows them to ‘Phone First’ and have a booked visit to address their urgent needs.
“Having the Urgent Care Centre allows patients who are deemed appropriate, by phoning first, they will then talk to a Senior Clinician who will make the decision whether it is appropriate to attend the Centre and if that is the case, it will avoid the travel to other Emergency Departments, such as the Ulster Hospital.
“Since Christmas, the Health Service and the community have had real significant challenges. Our staff have been amazing. They have worked really hard and shown their resilience. For the Minister to come and visit, helps them to see the support that he is offering to them in these challenging times.”
During the visit, Director of Primary Care & Older People, Clare-Marie Dickson took great delight in sharing plans for the new Trust-wide Hospital At Home service. In May 2023, the Trust commenced a Hospital at Home pilot, primarily for those people over 65 years old in four GP Practices in North Down & Ards. It involves offering a Consultant-led Hospital At Home service for acutely unwell patients. This has since been expanded to include all 24 GP practices in North Down & Ards which represents approximately half of the South Eastern Trust GP Practices. The Trust is currently expanding this service to the Down and Lisburn areas and full rollout should be complete by September 2025.
As part of his ministerial visit to the Down area, the Health Minister also took time to meet with staff from Clough GP Surgery to hear more about the work of Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs).
The Health Minister said, “Advanced Nurse Practitioners undertake a lot of work that relieves pressures on GPs. I think it is very reassuring for a patient to be told ‘you don’t have to see your GP, the ANP knows exactly what to do and you can see her right away’. I wanted to hear more about that work and celebrate it with a few of the ANPs at Clough Surgery.”
Director of Nursing, Down Federation, Maura Devlin MBE added, “It was great for the Health Minister to come and hear first-hand about the role of ANPs and how they are creating greater opportunities and more appointments for patients to be seen in General Practice.”
“ANPs can treat approximately 80 per cent of people who come into General Practice, they do not necessarily always need to see a GP and ANPs are very often able to see, diagnose and treat the patients that come through the door. We would hope to see a strategic plan to further roll out the allocation of ANPs to other GP practices across Northern Ireland.
“We do have a crisis in General Practice with a growing demand in work and not enough GPs available to provide that work. While ANPs will never replace GPs, they have a central role in ensuring that patients can get timely access to the service when they need it.”
