Welcome to the Right Decision Service (RDS) newsletter for August 2024.
Following the recent RDS outages, Tactuum and the RDS team have been reviewing the learning from these incidents. We are committed to doing all we can to ensure a positive outcome by strengthening the RDS to make it fully robust and clinically resilient for the future.
We would like to invite you to a webinar on 26th September 3-4 pm on national and local contingency planning for future RDS outages. Tactuum and the RDS team will speak about our business continuity plans and the national contingency arrangements we are putting in place. This will also be a space to share local contingency plans, ideas and existing good practice. We would also like to gather your views on who we should send communications to in the event of future outages.
I have sent a meeting request for this date to all editors – please accept or decline to indicate attendance, and please forward on to relevant contacts. You can also contact Olivia.graham@nhs.scot directly to register your interest in participating.
2.National IV fluid prescribing calculator
This UK CA marked calculator is now live at https://righdecisions.scot.nhs.uk/ivfluids . It has been developed by a multiprofessional steering group of leads in IV fluids management, as part of the wider Modernising Patient Pathways Programme within the Centre for Sustainable Delivery. It aims to address a known cause of clinical error in hospital settings, and we hope it will be especially useful to the new junior doctors who started in August.
Please do spread the word about this new calculator and get in touch with any questions.
The following toolkits are now live;
We have updated and simplified this guidance within our standard operating procedures. We have clarified the guidance on how to determine whether an RDS tool is a medical device, and have provided an interactive powerpoint slideset to steer you through the process.
We have developed a guide to support editors and toolkit leads through the process of scoping, designing, delivering, quality assuring and implementing a new RDS toolkit. We hope this will help in project planning and in building shared understanding of responsibilities throughout the full development process. The guide emphasises that the project does not end with launch of the new toolkit. Implementation, communication and evaluation are ongoing activities throughout the lifetime of the toolkit.
To book a place, please contact Olivia.graham@nhs.scot, providing your name, organisation, job role, and level of experience with RDS editing (none, a little, moderate, extensive.)
7 Evaluation projects
Dr Stephen Biggart from NHS Lothian has kindly shared with us the results of a recent survey of use of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Anaesthesia toolkit. This shows that the majority of consultants are using it weekly or monthly, mainly to access clinical protocols, with a secondary purpose being education and training purposes. They tend to find information by navigating by specialty rather than keyword searching, and had some useful recommendations for future development, such as access to quick reference guidance.
We’d really appreciate you sharing any other local evaluations of RDS in this way – it all helps to build the evidence base for impact.
If you have any questions about the content of this newsletter, please contact his.decisionsupport@nhs.scot If you would prefer not to receive future newsletters, please email Olivia.graham@nhs.scot and ask to be removed from the circulation list.
With kind regards
Right Decision Service team
Healthcare Improvement Scotland
How to contact us:
If you have any concerns about your child that you would like to discuss with a physiotherapist please contact us by completing a request of assistance form available from the NHS borders website www.nhsborders.scot.nhs.uk/paediatricphysiotherapy
Paediatric Physiotherapy Department
AHP Hub
Borders General Hospital
Melrose
TD6 9BS
Telephone: 01896 827231
You may prefer to speak to your GP, Health Visitor or School who will be able to make a request for assistance
on your behalf. We are able to accept requests from anyone working with a child if the parents have not
consented
Find us on Facebook: Paediatric Physiotherapy Service – NHS Borders
"Information given on this site is not meant to take the place of a talk with your doctor or health worker."
Leaflet produced by NHS Borders Paediatric Physiotherapy Service with thanks to Paediatric Physio, Poole
Hospital.
You will be told how much weight you are allowed to put through your affected leg
This will either be:
You will be measured and the crutches will be adjusted to the correct height for you. Do not change this, as this may make your crutches unsafe to use
Always keep your hands out of your crutches when trying to stand and sit so you don’t hurt your elbows or shoulders
1. Shuffle your bottom to the front / edge of the chair / bed
2. In one hand hold your crutches in a capital ‘H’ shape
3. Place your other hand on the chair / bed to help push up
4. Push up into standing using your unaffected leg, remembering your affected leg’s weight-bearing status
5. Once you have your balance, place one hand at a time through the loops on the crutches and hold onto the handles so they are pointing forward
6. Separate the crutches so they are slightly in front and put your weight down through the crutches
7. Reverse this for sitting down, ensuring you can feel the surface you are sitting onto, before attempting to sit down
8. Take your hands out of the crutches
9. Reach back with one arm, and lower yourself slowly.
1. Place both your crutches slightly in front of, and out to the side of, your feet
2. Push down through your arms and crutches, hop or step your unaffected leg up to the crutches
3. Place the crutches one step ahead, and continue moving forward
4. Do not move your feet in front of your crutches as this can make you unsteady
5. To turn: slowly move around in small hops. Don’t try to swing round or pivot in one movement, as you may become unsteady
1. Lead with your unaffected leg
2. Push down through your crutch/’s and handrail bringing your affected leg up next
3. Lastly bring your crutch/’s up to join
1. Place your crutch/’s on the first step down
2. Lower your affected leg down in front of you
3. Push down through your crutch/’s and handrail bringing your unaffected leg to join
Patient information leaflets