Health care bus takes the road 2/11/11
The Well North bus which takes healthcare screening and treatment services out into local island communities has been launched by Minister for Commonwealth Games and Sport Shona Robison.
Ms Robison said it was an “excellent initiative, widening the reach of healthcare screening and treatment services to communities in the Western Isles.
“It will improve access to services, particularly for hard to reach groups, providing people with health checks close to their homes, as well as services such as smoking cessation and advice on healthy eating. I am confident that the bus will greatly assist the health board in its efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of the population of the Western Isles.”
The launch event at North Tolsta Community Hall was attended by pupils from North Tolsta School; the first school children in the Western Isles to benefit from emergency Heart Start life support training by the local NHS.
The Well North service works in partnership with general practices to identify individuals who require a screen. Staff provide a full CVD and diabetes screen to clients aged between 40 and 69 on the mobile unit.
More than 6,000 of the target 8,000 clients have been screened to date. NHS Western Isles was also the first board in Scotland to introduce ‘point of care’ testing and instantaneous access to CVD and diabetes screening test results, all of which are provided on the bus.
Through screening provided on the Well North Bus, NHS Western Isles is gaining a
valuable understanding of the health needs of the Western Isles population aged between
40-
NHS Western Isles Public Health Practitioner Sara Bartram explained: “The new bus enables us to provide clients with targeted lifestyle advice based on their individual needs in a user friendly venue. Clients are given an overall health check and risk estimation score. If, following a health check, a client is found to be at a 20 per cent (or higher) risk of developing CVD in the next 10 years, measures can be taken, such as an increase in exercise, to prevent the disease forming.
“Clients at a 20 per cent or above risk are also referred back to their GP. Those in a slightly lower risk group will be offered support such as sports programmes in the sports centre or healthy eating advice.
“Where required, clients are also given an alcohol brief intervention or smoking cessation brief intervention (short motivational interviews). Individuals who are smokers who have clinical symptoms may be further assessed for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using a method called spirometry. Individuals who have high total cholesterol are invited back for further testing.”
The Well North Bus was purchased earlier this year and Tolsta School pupils were invited to design graphics for the bus, as pupils had been involved with the Heart Start programme.
Pupils were presented, by NHS Western Isles, with a climbing wall for their work; a prize relevant to a healthy lifestyle and also something the whole school could enjoy.