RHC Glasgow - Website and App for Parents and Patients
Published: 12/09/21
During the Pandemic we have all changed the way we work, and have found new ways of communicating with each other.
With an increase in remote working, finding better ways to get information to parents and patients became a priority.
The Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow, had a well-established Clinical guideline site which has been in place for (5+) years. It changed the way they worked allowing easy access to guidelines to everyone, and helped standardise practise. Expanding on this platform they have developed a new site for Patients, Parents & Carers and a site for Health Professionals, open to all Health Professionals. Both sites are accessible from our landing page RHCG (nhsggc.org.uk).
The Patient, Parent & Carer site RHCG - Home (nhsggc.org.uk) is designed to highlight local resources and health information as well as providing information on everything you need to know about coming to the Royal Hospital for Children. Parents can download the App to their phone, allowing access to reliable information, whether on or offline, when they need it most. Google Translate has been added to the online version.
The pre-hospital health information has been developed in conjunction with Primary Care and provides patients and parents with what they need to know to manage common illnesses, including when to come to hospital and other resources available in the community.
With assistance from the Healthier Together group in England they have been able to develop clear guidance with infographics and videos. These can be found in the parent health resource ‘I’m worried about My Child’. Cough and Cold (rhcg.org.uk) Over the coming months we are expanding this section, including information on Breast feeding, and developing accident and injury information. They have linked closely with the NHS GGC KIDS website (KIDS - Kids Independently Developing Skills | NHS GGC) to ensure parents can also find the information they need on their Child’s Development.
On the Health Professional side Safety Netting parent advice sheets are available to any health professional. The information contained closely mirrors the pre-hospital advice providing parents with much needed consistency and we now have an added text function.
These resources are useful for your local community, and The Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow are happy to provide further information; publicity posters or business cards with a QR code to pharmacies that would find this helpful. These can be obtained by emailing: Seona.Hamilton@ggc.scot.nhs.uk.
Our colleagues in NHS England are undertaking an extensive programme of research around their 'Pharmacy First' service. As part of this activity, they are looking to other nations' experiences and want to speak with around 10 practicing community pharmacists over the next month about their delivery of the Scottish service.