NHS care model pilot at Varis Court Forres is extended
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AN NHS care model pilot being tested at a local sheltered housing complex is to be extended by four months.
Five apartments in Varis Court, Leask Road, being leased by NHS Grampian to provide medical and nursing care for the Forres community as an alternative to hospital admission, will continue to be monitored and assessed ahead of an evaluation report in the summer.
The project, to describe the future shape of integrated services in the Forres, and following the principles behind the Buurtzorg model of 24-hour nursing pioneered in Holland, was supposed to run until April 2018 to support the national aim of providing care in appropriate settings outside hospitals.
Public involvement officer for Health and Social Care Moray, Fiona McPherson, said a previous extension was due to the ongoing collection of performance data.
She added "We are continuing to gather feedback from individuals who have been supported by the Forres locality multi-disciplinary team in their own homes and in the NHS beds at Varis Court, along with performance data."
Evaluations were reported to the partnership of health and social care, Moray Integration Joint Board (IJB), in November as part of the ongoing review but new locality manager for the area, Iain Macdonald, confirmed the results will not be generally released until the summer.
He said: "One of my priority areas is to review the Ambulatory Care Unit/Forres Neighbourhood Care Team provision that is based within Varis Court. This is an ongoing review of this provision. I anticipate the review will be completed by the end of June."
