Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSNurse-led clinics the solution to rural healthcare, says RCN
Healthcare in rural areas of Scotland must be designed to overcome traditional professional boundaries between nurses and doctors, the Royal College of Nursing Scotland told MSPs.
The college said health boards must ensure that patients in rural areas are provided with easily accessible services designed around them, RCN Scotland chair Eileen Frame told a Liberal Democrat conference.
“Investment in the skills and training of the health workforce must continue in order to ensure that everyone can be seen and treated by an appropriately skilled member of the healthcare team.
“It is not necessary to see a GP in many cases, so in rural areas - where it can be hard to recruit doctors - nurse-led clinics and services run by highly qualified and skilled advanced nurse practitioners can improve access to healthcare hugely.”
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Anonymous | 7-Mar-2010 1:15 pm
It is not just in rural areas, Nurse led clinics in city centres can improve access and reduce hospital visits too.
Imagine A Nurse run health centre, staffed with a few band 5 Nurses, a couple of band 6 and 7 specialist or advanced Nurses with extended roles for diagnosing and prescribing and even a band 8 consultant.
Is there anything that can't be done in this fictional health centre that can be done in a GP surgery full of 6 or 7 GP's? More importantly, can we actually do more for our patients?
Think about it ...
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