Bassetlaw: New hospital service will benefit everyone

Patients who visit Bassetlaw Hospital with conditions that previously required admission to a ward overnight are benefiting from a new service that means they may be treated and sent home quickly.

Thanks to the ambulatory care service, people diagnosed with or suspected of having a range of conditions can be assessed and treated by acute medical consultants and senior nurses without needing to stay overnight.

New patients with a reasonably probability of being sent home are seen by a nurse and acute medical physician in the ambulatory care facility, which has four treatment areas with reclining chair-beds, before being administered treatment if needed.

Where consultants feel a patient needs to be admitted for closer observation, they will move into one of the 21 inpatient beds at the Assessment and Treatment Centre.

William Fergus, from Worksop, used the ambulatory care service after being referred there from A&E for further investigation due to a suspected blood clot in his leg.

He said: “My leg had all swelled up and the A&E team felt I needed to be seen by a specialist so they took me to the Assessment and Treatment Centre.

“I had all the tests and assessments done and they were able to tell me I was okay and good to go- job’s a good one.”

The ambulatory care service is part of the Assessment & Treatment Centre at Bassetlaw Hospital.

Patients are usually referred there by their GP or by A&E staff and new patients are seen by a nurse for their initial assessment and medical history.

Tests or scans may be carried out to provide further information.

Patients are then seen by a consultant physician specialising in acute medicine, who decides how their care should be managed.

If appropriate, they may go to one of the unit’s treatment areas but if this is not necessary, patients can then be booked to return another day and then go home and come back as required on an outpatient basis for their care.