Care home team’s award

Heathcare professionals praised for project

A project piloted at a Coatbridge care home has earned its dedicated team a top honour at the Scottish health awards.

NHS Lanarkshire’s care home continence improvement project triumphed in the “integrated care for older people” category at the prestigious ceremony in Edinburgh.

The project, which included a trial at Summerlee House, focused on new approaches to continence care through small changes including medication reviews, reducing caffeine intake and better recording of processes.

It was led by Jean Donaldson, Alice MacLeod, Margaret McDonald and Debra Allison, and involved staff from NHS national services, North and South Lanarkshire health and social care partnerships and South Lanarkshire Council.

They were applauded for their efforts “to provide an improved quality of life for older people in care homes” and bid to help “older people to live safely at home and be as independent as possible”.

Now being rolled out to a further eight Lanarkshire care homes, the project saw improvements including halving of urinary infections, skin damage reducing by one third and a 65 per cent reduction in falls.

Jean Donaldson, associate director of nursing for South Lanarkshire health and social care partnership, said: “It’s exceeded expectations.

“We expected that we could improve continence by making a few small changes, but didn’t expect that we would reduce the amount of falls, urine infections and – as reported by some of the relatives and the staff – confusion and stress.”

Lanarkshire’s team was among 17 winners at the Scottish health awards, run by the Daily Record and in partnership with NHS Scotland and the Scottish Government.

Record editor David Dick said: “Thousands of healthcare professionals and volunteers dedicate their lives to providing the best possible care to the people of Scotland; and our Scottish health awards once again provided us with a chance to recognise and celebrate their hard work and commitment.”