Patients settle into new ward
NHS Lanarkshire’s Strathclyde ward has opened to patients in Motherwell’s Airbles Road Centre.
It is now home for those who were previously within the Strathclyde Suite in Parksprings Care Home.
The Strathclyde Suite moved to Airbles Road as the health board’s contract with Parksprings, to provide accommodation, ended.
Janice Miles, senior nurse for older people, said: “We are delighted to be back on NHS premises.
“We are very pleased with the new unit, the rooms are so bright and airy. And we also benefit from the purpose-built dementia garden we have outside, which I am sure the patients will enjoy.
“Our staff are really looking forward to looking after our patients in this area.”
All of the NHS Lanarkshire staff who provided care within the suite in Parksprings have moved to the new Strathclyde ward. The GP cover also remains the same, so the patients will benefit from continuity of care.
Janice added: “Patients moved to the new Strathclyde Ward on Sunday, July 9. The move went really smoothly, thanks to the partnership working with Parksprings, the Scottish Ambulance Service and Getting Better Together, a community transport organisation based in Shotts, who helped to take our patients to the new ward.
“I would like to thank everyone at Parksprings for their terrific support over the years.”
NHS Lanarkshire organised an open day to let relatives and carers have a look around the new facilities. Everyone who attended got a chance to see their loved one’s room and the communal areas. Staff were also on hand to answer any queries they had.
Brothers Frank and James Gaffney were born in the unit, which will now be home to their mum.
Frank said: “The Strathclyde ward is very bright and comforting and I am glad that my mother is coming here.”
His brother James added: “The staff are absolutely amazing and we are pleased that she is going to be so well looked after by all the staff.”
James Craney, whose mum has moved to the new ward, said: “My mother is coming back to the place where we first met, because I was born in here. I think she is going to love it.
“She will have a lot more freedom, she has got a better view and I am really glad that she is going to have the same staff because she knows them and they know her. That is something I am really happy about.”
Elizabeth Pate, from Motherwell, added: “The new Strathclyde ward is wonderful, it is so bright and homely. The rooms look excellent and the shower rooms look fantastic
“My dad was in the Strathclyde unit for four weeks and he had a single room. He now shares a room which is good because he has some company. The staff said that my dad and the gentleman he shares a room with used to be in the Boys’ Brigade together when they were young.”
In a previous life, the Airbles Road Centre was a busy maternity unit for Motherwell. A current member of staff, Janice Mcgeogh, gave birth to her two daughters there while another, Margaret Main, was born there 47 years ago.
Katherine Anne Alexander, senior charge nurse for the new Strathclyde ward, said: “The whole team is excited about coming back in to an NHS facility. It has been 15 years since we left the old Strathclyde Hospital.
“I would like to thank all the staff for their commitment and hard work in the old unit and for their hard work in getting us to the new unit. We will continue to provide a high standard of care to the patients who come into the ward while also supporting the patients’ families.”
We also benefit from the purpose-built dementia garden