People living in West Lancashire are benefitting from improved community and urgent care services which help them to remain well and avoid unnecessary trips to hospital, according to the latest Quality Account published by Virgin Care.The Quality Account is published every year and informs patients, staff and the public about the standard of care they can receive, as well as key improvements and future plans to continually improve the quality of care provided across West Lancashire.

Achievements include:

* Creating a single point of access for all services and starting work to develop this into a care coordination hub which puts the patient at the centre of services with access to the right service at the right time to keep them well and independent.

* Working with NHS and private providers to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and supporting the Emergency Services to improve waiting times. A paramedic has been employed by Virgin Care to work across Urgent Care Centres in Skelmersdale and Ormskirk, allowing patients to be better supported.

* Supporting and building capacity within the voluntary sector by organising events to create links between local organisations and help share knowledge and skills.

* Co-locating all specialist services to two central hubs allowing teams to work more closely together and provide a better service to patients.

* Investing in mobile technology for community teams which has increased their face to face time with service users and allows them to provide ‘real time’ information to GPs.

* Supporting the training and development of colleagues, for example colleagues have been supported in achieving the Assistant Practitioner qualification and the Specialist Practice Qualified District Nurse qualification.

Its Urgent Care Staff have also completed extended training at University level in MSK and Paediatrics.Over the next 12 months, the services will continue to work with local partners to support people’s health needs in their own homes.

Michelle Lee, Managing Director for West Lancashire Community and Urgent Care Services for Virgin Care, told QLocal this afternoon: “During the last 12 months we have delivered so much, improving the quality of care and experience received by service users, carers and families.

"Our achievements would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of colleagues and working together with different providers to make a positive difference to the lives of local people.”

The full Quality Account for 2018/19 includes more achievements as well as the services focus and priorities. It can be found herehttps://virgincare.co.uk/legal-infor...accounts-2019/