26th April 2023
The Southern Health and Social Care Trust are delighted that eight of its teams have been named as finalists in the NI Healthcare Awards 2023.
The awards, which take place on Thursday 27th April, represent an integral opportunity for healthcare professionals from across the diverse disciplines to not only honour the industrious, innovative projects of their peers, but also reflect on their own extraordinary work.
Good luck to all our teams.
- The Mental Health Pharmacy Team – Hospital Pharmacy Team of the Year
The mental health pharmacy team undertook work to identify all the patients prescribed greater than the licensed dosage range and ensure that prescriber and patient are aware of this and ensure patient safety.
- The MOOP Care Home Pharmacists Team – Hospital Pharmacy Team of the Year
The team is a regional team of pharmacists from the five Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland delivering a medicines optimisation model for the over 65s residing in care homes.
The team have adapted the medicines optimisation medicine review model to provide more of a focus on falls. This model is now used for all care home residents.
The team are expanding their service to take referrals from the Falls co-ordinators in each trust for care home residents who have fallen and GP Out of Hours, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service have been contacted or the resident has attended an Emergency Department.
- The Aortic Valve Surveillance Service – Advancements in Cardiology Treatment Award
We designed, developed and delivered a comprehensive centralised Aortic Valve Surveillance service for patients in the Trust with aortic stenosis. The service, operated by specialty doctors with governance from consultant cardiologists, is the first of its kind in Northern Ireland.
Through centralising care we have saved duplication of valuable appointment and investigation slots, which is beneficial to both our patients and our budget.
- Southern Trust Ambulatory Cardiology Unit – Advancements in Cardiology Treatment Award
The team developed an ambulatory care pathway for the management of several common cardiac presentations to secondary care. Their brand of patient-centred ambulatory care has demonstrated its readily achievable benefits through its safety, reduction in bed pressures, and improvement in patient experience and autonomy.
- The Rheumatology Nurse-Led Gout Service – ‘Innovation in Rheumatology Service’ Award
A nurse-led gout service was introduced in the Trust. However, within three months of the service starting, COVID led to the closure of routine outpatient clinics. In order to effectively continue the gout service and in particular to reduce the demand on healthcare services and ED attendances caused by gout attacks, the decision was made to switch the gout clinic to an entirely telephone service. The service has been well received by patients, resulting in better patient engagement and participation. The service was able to provide education, deliver effective reductions in serum uric acid, reduce incidence of flares and thus easing pressures within other clinical areas.
- Michelle Murphy and the Rheumatology Team – ‘Innovation in Rheumatology Service’ Award
Introduced a Pharmacist-led blood monitoring clinic for Janus Kinase Inhibitors and since the establishment of the clinic, Michelle and her pharmacy team have made several significant interventions, including medication adherence, detecting haematological abnormalities that required JAKi dose reduction and identifying patients suffering from infection requiring intervention.
- The Genitourinary Medicine Service – Innovations in Infections Management in Secondary Care Award
As part of a PHA-led MPOX regional response, the SHSCT GUM team rapidly implemented a pathway to provide safe assessment and testing of individuals with suspected MPOX, presenting to primary or secondary care services within the Trust. This involved significant reconfiguration and relocation of the GUM services including the creation of highly specialised isolated facilities within GUM premises and the implementation of robust clinical pathways for managing positive cases as well as close contacts. In parallel to this, a successful vaccination programme has been rolled out both to close contacts of positive cases and to higher risk patients within the community.
- The Complex Care Team/ Enhanced Care Team – Innovations in Infections Management in Secondary Care Award.
The team implemented the New Enhanced Service for Complex Care with the aim of to deliver a Co Produced Enhanced Complex Care Recovery Service to support patients with a disability who are acutely unwell and avoid unnecessary admission to hospital and support earlier discharge of patients from an acute setting.
