Forth Valley care home team in running for national award

The team now has the opportunity to earn the People’s Choice prize at this year’s Scottish Health Awards for the way it supported over 2000 people across the 66 care homes in the area.

Clare Colligan, NHS Forth Valley’s lead pharmacist for primary care, said: “This was a true team effort where an enormous amount of people across multiple disciplines pulled together to set this up this initiative in a matter of days and kept it running for an extended period of time.

“When I think back on this, I am amazed at how we got this up and running so quickly, got all the stakeholders on board, trained the staff in their different roles and got involved in an education programme for care home staff and GPs.

“Everyone pulled together and supported each other to make this new system happen to ensure vital medication was available in local care homes to support residents who quickly became unwell.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic began last March a swift response was required to help to help get medicines to vulnerable older people so that they would be immediately available for use, if required.

The multidisciplinary team involved a wide range of staff, including local GPs, hospital and community based pharmacists and nurses as well as care home leads and staff from Strathcarron Hospice.

Together the team devised a system which allowed GPs to prescribe in advance for care home residents who they felt were potentially at risk of severe symptoms due to COVID-19.

This meant medicines to alleviate the symptoms could be obtained and administered quickly, day or night.

The new medication process was put in place within 72 hours supported by a comprehensive training programme for GPs and care home staff to support the management of residents affected by COVID in the following weeks and months.

New transport and COVID hubs were also established to manage all communications.

Visit www.scottishhealthawards.com for more details on how to vote for the team.

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