SAM ROWLANDS, Member of the Welsh Parliament for North Wales, has welcomed the opening of a new Frailty Assessment Unit at Ysbyty Gwynedd to improve quality of care and patient experience.
Mr Rowlands said: “I am really pleased to see such a service now being offered to help reduce pressures on the emergency department at the hospital.
“We all know about the problems in A&E departments across North Wales, with people waiting many hours for treatment and it is good to see some positive steps being taken to improve this.
“I hope this new unit will provide a better service for frail elderly patients and help them to avoid unnecessarily being admitted to hospital so freeing up beds for other patients.”
The unit has opened as part of efforts to help reduce pressures on the Emergency Department and to enhance the care provided to frail elderly patients to avoid hospital admissions.
Patients who attend the Emergency Department are screened by dedicated frailty teams, before being transferred to the unit for a comprehensive assessment and care by a specialist multidisciplinary team that includes geriatricians, therapists, pharmacists and nurses.
Dr Conor Martin, Consultant in the Care of the Elderly at Ysbyty Gwynedd, said: “As the population ages, hospitals across the UK are seeing an increase in frail, elderly patients, who are at higher risk of poor outcomes when admitted into hospital.
“The feedback we have had so far in only the few weeks that the unit has been opened has been very positive. We are still in the early days but our aim is to ensure that our frail patients receive timely and appropriate care.
“This means some patients can discharged the same day, avoiding unnecessary hospital stays, and reducing the overall amount of time they spend in hospital, which we know is better for their ongoing wellbeing and recovery.”
So far, the unit, which started operating only three weeks ago, has had 52 admissions, of these 60 per cent were discharged home.
