Nairn staff prepare to move into new care centre

Health and social care staff are preparing for the move to the new primary care centre at Nairn Town and County Hospital, which will start seeing patients on July 27.

The transfer includes doctors and other practice staff from the Lodgehill surgery and the Nairn branch of the Ardersier surgery, which is currently in an old house in Douglas Street.

The staff from these practices will soon be working in the same building as a full range of community-based health staff and staff from Highland Council’s social work department.

Lodgehill GP Dr Adrian Baker, who is clinical leader for NHS Highland in the Nairn and Ardersier locality, said: “This building is now one of the most integrated primary health and social services centres in Scotland. The completion of phase two will allow us to provide our extended primary care services from one building. This allows us increased personal interaction and will help us to build on the relationships that are vital to provide the holistic and personal care which our patients deserve.

“For the staff working at Lodgehill Clinic, we are moving less than 430 yards down the road, but in another sense it is a huge move because we will now be working alongside our colleagues from other health and social care disciplines who care for our patients. When appropriate, it will make it easier for us to discuss patients’ needs with the extended primary care team and provide even closer team-working around patients and families.”

The move takes place over five days from July 22 to 26. During this time, the doctors will operate an on-call service to ensure that urgent cases continue to be seen. Patients can access this service in the usual way.

Dr Jonathan Ball, from Ardersier, said: “We are delighted to be moving to a new and modern building with all the improvements in health and safety and access for the disabled that this will entail. In particular, we are looking forwards to working alongside colleagues from the NHS community teams and social work who will also be based there, and feel that this will help us to deliver care in a more personal and holistic way.”

Councillor Margaret Davidson, chairwoman of Highland Council’s housing and social work committee, said: “Highland Council and NHS Highland are working together to achieve better integrated working. What really helps to make a difference though is practical steps like this in Nairn, bringing service users, social workers and clinicians together under the one roof. This supports joint working between the professionals and helps make things much more straightforward for the users of social care and health services and their carers.”