In 2018, the Scottish Government and GPs agreed on new ways of working in order to improve patient care and help ease the pressures in General Practice.
In line with this, Lorn Medical Centre and Mull and Iona Medical Group GPs identified areas of their services to re-design to make sure patients were prioritised to access convenient and comprehensive Community Treatment and Care (CTAC) services where they live.
To successfully deliver the new enhanced CTAC service model and focus on building an improved service for patients within general practice and the wider communities, the CTAC service based in Lorn Medical Centre will be moving their base to a more suitable centralised department within Lorn and Islands Hospital. Lorn Medical Centre patients and people living in the surrounding local communities will benefit from the integration of a wide range of CTAC and multi-disciplinary health and social care professionals and services.
The CTAC team's approach to manage the demand for more flexible appointments and to reduce waiting lists will extend their operational hours from 9 am to 3 pm through to 5 pm. The additional clinic hours offer patients more choices of flexible appointment times to access CTAC services including laboratory resources for blood sampling analysis.
Evan Beswick, Primary Care Manager said: “Our CTAC team offers a valuable alternative service to general practice appointments. Being based at Lorn and Islands Hospital is a development solution to prioritise the demand for a more flexible approach for patients presenting with a wide range of existing complex needs, long-term conditions, and exploratory blood test screening.”
Community Treatment and Care Nurses deliver a range of clinical interventions, treatments and services from diabetic foot assessments, B12 injections, wound care, dressings, and blood tests to minor surgical procedures. They also identify and refer patients to urgent and specialised health and social care services. With the team being based at the hospital patients will benefit from faster access to a wide range of integrated multi-disciplinary health and social care teams and services.
Paula Laidler, Oban and Lorn CTAC Nurse said: “Our priority is to always improve our patient services. It is great news that our service will be centralised at the hospital. The service is easily accessible for Lorn Medical Centre and surrounding rural area patients. People across our local communities will benefit from shorter waiting lists for appointments, and have more choice and flexibility when booking or being offered appointments for treatments and services.”
The rollout of the new and improved CTAC service for Lorn Medical Centre patients will be in place from this week. All appointments and consultations will be carried out at Lorn and Islands Hospital Outpatients Department. Taynuilt, Connel, Dalmally, Appin, and Easdale patients will continue to have the choice of continuing to use their GP surgery service with the additional option of booking an appointment with the Lorn and Islands Hospital CTAC Team if it is more convenient.
Lorn Medical Centre patients and outlining areas can continue to book or cancel appointments through their own GP booking system as normal, or patients can choose to be appointed directly by Lorn and Islands CTAC team by telephoning 07790 393178 or 01631 788910.