East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership hosted a visit from Catalonian Health Ministers during a visit to Scotland.
On Wednesday 12 June, East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership (ELHSCP) hosted a delegation of Catalonian health ministers to showcase best practice in health and social care integration, and the team’s leading approach to digital health innovations to support patient care.
The delegation, which was made up of Catalonian health ministers were on a two-day visit to Scotland to meet with the Scottish Government as part of a Digital Health Update Twinning Programme. The visit, which is part of an EU funded project under the Digital Europe Programme aims to use a variety of knowledge to transfer activities to advance the update of digital health solutions and services in Europe.
Having met with Scottish Government officials in the morning, East Lothian was chosen as an itinerary destination to allow the delegation to gain a greater understanding of health and social care integration in practice from a local Partnership team which incorporates staff members from NHS Lothian and East Lothian Council.
As well as an overview of the East Lothian context, attendees were provided with presentations from the Rehabilitation Team showcasing the impact of integrated partnership working interventions across East Lothian’s in-patient and community care services.
A key component of each of these interventions is East Lothian Rehabilitation Services’ approach to developing services utilising data-informed-design and digital technology, whilst putting the needs of the individual at the forefront of all decisions.
The underlying success factor being, that each member of personnel (regardless of whether they are employed by East Lothian Council or NHS Lothian) consider themselves to be part of one collective team, striving to deliver the best health and best care for their patient.
Demonstrating their efforts in practice, the delegation was given a tour of East Lothian Community Hospital, with specific focus on technology enabled endoscopy suite and the recently opened Orthopaedic Rehabilitation Ward, which supports patients from across the Lothians to recover from surgery and get back to a homely setting.
Chief Officer and Joint Director of East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership, Fiona Wilson commented, “It is always a privilege to be asked by the Scottish Government to host a visiting delegation to showcase the integration of health and social care services in Scotland. East Lothian’s approach to innovation is very much led by our operational teams. It is their persistence, collaborative working, and drive to think differently, that enables us to deliver the best health and care services for East Lothian residents.”
Catalonian Health Ministers visit East Lothian