Policy and Scrutiny Committee Members visit St. Mary’s

Members of the Island’s Policy and Scrutiny Committee for Adult Social Care and Health visited St. Mary’s Hospital to see the workings of the Island’s health and care system.

The visit is the first of a series of opportunities for Committee Members to find out more about the day to day running of health services and the improvements that are being made in many areas of the Trust as it moves forward on its journey to Getting to Good.

Maggie Oldham, Isle of Wight NHS Trust Chief Executive led a tour of the Emergency Department which is currently being partly reconfigured and upgraded to improve patient flow. Members toured the newly opened Minors Treatment Unit which offers a dedicated area for patients with minor illness or injury to be treated without the need to enter the main Emergency Department.

Colleagues were also shown the new Ambulatory Emergency Care Unit which is still under construction. Patients requiring further investigations and tests will be transferred to this area with a view to them going home the same day and without the need to be admitted to hospital overnight.

The visit also included a tour of the Operations Centre which coordinates the flow of emergency and elective patients coming into hospital and supports their discharge home, ensuring that patients are in the right place for the right care at the right time.

Maggie Oldham, said: “I am very pleased to welcome Policy and Scrutiny colleagues to the hospital. In the spirit of open and transparent relationships, this is one of a number of planned visits and I look forward to introducing colleagues to our Ambulance, Community and Mental Health services.”

Councillor John Nicholson, Chairman of the Policy and Scrutiny Committee for Adult Social Care and Health, said: “Having been highly critical of the Trust and it’s approach in the past, I and my committee are very impressed with the new openness and honesty of the current Trust Management with staff, patients, the public and other health partners, in recognition of where problems lie and what needs to be done to address and convert them into successes. This new innovative and open attitude towards resolving issues of long-standing poor performance can be exampled by the remarkable success of our Winter Plan, in which we are outstanding in being one of the only areas of the Country to have one that worked and worked very well to boot! I think it is a very exciting time for the Trust, which I can see, under the current management team, and with the huge dedication and loyalty that our IW staff can give in support, we could achieve great things at St Mary’s for this Island and its people.”