A new way of working is to be welcomed

Editorial Department • Published 6 Aug 2009 09:00 0 Comments

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A month after it opened for business, the Western Health and Social Care Trust unveiled its Medical and Surgical Assessment Unit at the Erne Hospital.

Recommended by the Royal College for Physicians and Surgeons, the rapid assessment unit will be the point of initial care for the majority of acutely ill patients who are treated at the Erne Hospital. It's a new way of working that very much makes sense. Instead of having acute patients dotted throughout the hospital, they are in one central location where staff with the expertise are there to treat them.

All patients admitted to the unit are initially assessed by a doctor. On examining the patient, the doctor makes a decision whether further examinations such as x-rays and scans are needed. A decision is made to either admit the patient to the ward, advise them to stay for further observation or discharge them to the care of their GP.

The unit is designed for short stays of patients and maximum stay will be 24 to 48 hours.

It is described in hospital literature as an emergency area with limited space. It is also very busy with approximately 16 patients a day, sometimes more.

This one-stop-shop way of initially assessing and treating patients is very much the way forward. It makes sense having acute patients in one place with the necessary diagnostics close at hand with the care of experienced staff.

One negative is that the unit is where the Gynae ward used to be. Those beds have now been subsumed into Surgical and there was discontent that vulnerable women were being treated within the confines of a mixed ward.

Mixed too is the new unit, but staff say they endeavour to keep the bays separate.

Obviously, use of space is determined and confined by the constraints of an older building. Hopefully these issues will not be of concern when the new hospital opens in 2012 where similar assessment units will be used.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 06 Aug 09

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