Page 27 - QARANC Vol 14 No 11 2015

Failte MRS Edinburgh!
Latha mhath! from MRS Edinburgh. The QA contingent at MRS Edinburgh has grown considerably from 1 x QA to 3 x permanent QAs within the MRS (Maj Hunter, Sgt Smith and Cpl McDonald) and 1 x Regimental Nurse each for 3 Rifles (Sgt Kelly) and 2 Scots (Sgt Tomkinson) within the last year and a fairly busy time it has been too.
The most notable one for myself has been the transition / realisation from APHCS to DPHC meaning that DPHC (SNI) now covers all three services as far north as Fort George in Inverness to as far down as ourselves in Edinburgh, as far west as Faslane and as far east as Leuchars; with each Medical Facility originally doing things in their own unique way. The past year has seen every Medical Centre within Scotland and Northern Ireland look to each other to share the wealth of corporate knowledge that is out there. It has been an opportunity to truly look at health care in a “Purple – Defence” way and I am sure that all services involved have agreed that we have all learned a lot from each other. This report will deal with the Scotland AO and I am sure once Maj McPhee has his feet under the table will continue to move things forward in Northern Ireland
I arrived in May of last year to be met with Scotland hosting the Commonwealth games; which was an amazing experience that doubled our PAR within Edinburgh overnight. We also supported a little med centre based in Tulley Allan Police College ... no free tickets I hasten to add, but a great atmosphere all the same. We then moved onto Exercise Summer Challenge, support to Reservists Phase one and Phase two training, and finally onto the Edinburgh Tattoo ... only two free tickets this time ... maybe more this year! Finally, we continued onto the great Regimental move around losing one Regiment but gaining much increased Reservist/ UOTC Occupational Health (OH) responsibilities which has ensured our work has never really run dry.
Talking of Occupational Health, we are delighted to report Maj Briggie Whelan is doing an amazing job in Edinburgh and is getting to grips with explaining to people that Scotland is a big place. You can’t have a meeting a Fort George in the morning followed by a meeting in Faslane in the afternoon, certainly since the A9 average speed cameras were introduced anyway! Maj Whelan is currently on much needed maternity leave and all our best go to Team Whelan! Welcome baby Wilbur.
Moving back to MRS Edinburgh staff; Cpl McDonald completed a support operation at Brize-Norton providing Ebola monitoring health support; fortunately, he was not tempted into the RAF world and starts his PHC specialist training through the University of the West of Scotland in September this year. Cpl McDonald is looking forward to this new challenge and hopes to further consolidate in post when he has graduated. Sgt Smith has slotted in seamlessly to the team and is also working a couple of days in Rosyth (HMS Caledonia) as the Practice Nurse for the wee MRS they have there. Her on-going mission is to get as much Army stuff up in her Navy MRS as soon as possible!! Of course we are all purple here in DPHC ... but old habits die hard!!
Sgt Tomkinson is preparing for another operational tour to Afghanistan later this year with 2 Scots and we look forward to their safe return next year. Sgt Kelly has just joined 3 Rifles as their Regimental Nurse and already is making a positive impact on Regimental patient care, aiming to seek out patients rather than waiting for them to arrive on a sick parade!
As for myself, after a period of “enforced” leave after a MNP tour on H19 I am firmly back in the chair and establishing the MNP within the practice and further afield. I truly believe the MNP has a developing role within Primary and Secondary Health care and we should continue to enhance and develop this role. Scoping visits have taken me to Orkney as well as the west coast of the Highlands; beautiful remote countryside with a unique skills requirement.
Within the practice we run a monthly “Man-Tron” study day where we take all of the Nurses and Health Care Support Workers out of PHC and the ward and train for the day. This training will range from mandated training to supervision sessions to team building “away days” ... all ending in true QA style at a local inn!
Health Promotion wise we have a regular slot on BFBS Scotland where I go in and do a Health Promotion broadcast once per month followed by ad-hoc guest appearances .... Why anyone would let me on the radio is beyond me and the poor presenters dubbing button must be broken on his computer by now (anyone who knows me will get the joke). We also link into NHS Lothian for all of our other health promotion drives, creating great opportunities to further develop military clinical knowledge.
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary provides us with our ED and MIU experience and the Sexual Health Clinic Chalmers is the most proactive one I have worked in by far. PHC in MRS Edinburgh is not just about being a PHC nurse but being able to provide a PHC nurse who is also experienced and trained in a variety of other skills not normally linked to being a standard PHC nurse. Finally, we are pleased to report that we are now accepting military nursing students from BCU,
RNs looking for experience / recommendation for PHC training and we are putting our first military nurse through PHC spec training (Cpl McDonald). This is of course all additional to the odd nurse cover shift in Leuchers, Caledonia and Fort George, again which adds to the uniqueness of working in MRS Edinburgh
I am reminded that although we QAs are low in numbers north of the
border, we are certainly
using every opportunity
we can to our advantage.
Our Professional Development opportunities have been phenomenal up
here and we feel very lucky to be given the opportunities that we have; but also am glad that we can put them into practice and sometimes give the NHS something
to work towards.
Well in true Burns Fashion “Haste ye back!” and we look forward to our next up- date later in the year!!
Maj Graham Hunter Senior Nursing Officer MRS Edinburgh
Lt Col Fordham Senior Medical Officer
WO2 Muirhead, Practice Manager
THE GAZETTE QARANC 25