Primary Healthcare Services

Wathwood Physical Health Care Team has a health promotion focus - helping each individual to realise their full health potential.

Wathwood Hospital works across a multi-disciplinary team providing a holistic approach to managing mental and physical health.

Physical and mental health are undeniably linked, and it is detrimental to a person’s overall wellbeing to regard these as two separate entities.

“NHS England has agreed that by 2020/21 at least 280,000 more people living with severe mental health problems should have their physical health needs met. Mental health nurses are crucial to making these improvements, and to the Government’s goal”. “Nurses must capitalise on the opportunities they have and make sure that people with whom they have the most contact have their physical health needs met by early detection and access to evidence based care and interventions”. ‘Improving the physical health of people with mental health problems 2016’.

Wathwood works with the above principles throughout its approach to physical health care and has a health promotion focus to achieving equality in health.

Through health promotion the PHC services aim to provide equal opportunities for all patients helping each individual to realise their full health potential.

Wathwood Hospital has had a PHC service since 2001; today we provide the equivalent of that of a community GP surgery service.

At all times we aim to provide a wide range of services for our patients ensuring that the approach to patient care and treatment is consistent, that a high standard of care is maintained, developed and is constantly improving, adhering to and working with NICE guidance, the Five Year Forward View, as well as health of the nation, latest standards and guidance:

• providing full health reviews on admission, a full MOT on admission and every six months
• working with an active general practitioner and surgery
• taking action to reduce substance use with our occupational therapy and psychology teams and support to quit smoking
• tackling levels of obesity and working with a whole team approach, providing a whole hospital healthy lifestyles strategy
• improving levels of physical activity across our patient population, offering a variety of activities to support people's interests and physical health abilities, with our physical activity team
• working with patients to improve sexual health awareness, blood borne virus screening and immunisation, working with specialist hepatology services in Sheffield
• monitoring antipsychotic medication health, improving medication concordance and reducing side effects and ill health, working with our pharmacy colleagues
• improving dental care, hygiene and oral health, with our time for teeth colleagues
• providing extended services such as physiotherapy, podiatry, retinopathy, management and health promotion in diabetes and asthma as well as general self-care

All our Primary Health Care services are based on the five principles of health promotion

1. A broad, positive health concept
2. Participation and involvement
3. Action and action competence
4. A settings perspective
5. Equality in health

The PHC team can only achieve this through working in collaboration with our patients and multi -disciplinary teams supporting and developing best practice through education, training and involvement.