The vision for the new University Hospital Monklands at Wester Moffat, Airdrie, has continued to take shape over the last quarter as the various Monklands Replacement Project (MRP) workstreams progress activity on the project’s outline business case.
Emphasising the importance of staffing for the new hospital, MRP workforce lead Laura Ireland said: “A new workforce planning sub-group met, with an initial focus on modelling the requirements for the different staff groups.
“The new hospital will have single patient bedrooms throughout, as required by the Scottish Government, so we carried out an observation study to help us assess the workload for all job roles associated with a single-room ward.
“The data from this is now being analysed.”
Service planning has moved forward on several fronts. MRP service redesign assistant Lesley Aitken said: “Workshops were held about the crucial issue of admin & office space, enabling progression for the outline business case stage, and further work has been undertaken on overall numbers and types of workspace required.
“For outpatient planning, relevant department leads have been asked to review their funded staffing in relation to the proposed model of care for the new layout. We’re also linking with the MRP’s digital workstream to understand how existing and future ‘pathways’ for patient care can best use digital technology.”
With our ambition for the new Monklands to be “Scotland’s first digital hospital”, the plans are building in proposals for technology to support patients and visitors and increase the amount of time staff have for direct patient care.
MRP digital lead Maureen McGinn said: “Our digital co-ordination group oversees a number of workstreams, covering how we digitise services, understand digital innovations and keep information secure, among other things. Through these we’ve been assessing the current barriers to effective digital working to ensure future digitisation considers how to remove them, and considering ‘future gazing’ to anticipate technology opportunities.
“The MRP will also be a key stakeholder in the planned refresh of NHS Lanarkshire’s digital strategy.”
Nothing is as important to the project as infection prevention & control (IPC), to protect patients, visitors and staff using the new building.
MRP IPC nurse consultant Linda Thomas said: “We’ve been undertaking the design and planning for stage two of HAI SCRIBE (Healthcare Associated Infection Systems for Controlling Risk in the Built Environment), which is a risk management tool that can be reviewed and updated if and when new information is presented to the MRP team.
“Workshops are being held for stage 2, which will cover mechanical, electrical and plumbing services. There has also been HAI SCRIBE familiarisation training for team members.”
“Soft landings” is a concept designed to help us plan well in advance for a smooth transition to the new Monklands, aligning the interests of those who plan, design and construct the hospital with those who then operate and use it.
MRP service redesign assistant Lesley Aitken said: “The soft landings group’s outline business case delivery plan activities have now concluded and we’ve turned our attention to developing our plans for the full business case.
“The MRP continues to be represented at regular soft landings meetings alongside other health boards that will be introducing the new National Treatment Centres – a network of facilities for planned procedures and diagnostic care. This has been useful in terms of sharing lessons learned.”
“The Monklands Engagement Forum provides crucial public/patient input from representatives of groups including community boards, community councils, the third sector and public partnership/health & social care forums,” said MRP communications & engagement officer Bob Smyth.
“During the period presentations and discussions included the proposed perioperative model for surgery, the recent planning consultation and outpatient service design.”
In addition to this quarterly update, there are monthly Monklands Replacement Project flash reports in the staff briefing and on the MRP webpage – www.monklands.scot.nhs.uk.
Direct link to flash reports https://www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk/download/mrp-flash-reports-2022/.
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