Shropshire Star

New medical assistants for Shropshire hospitals

New medical assistants will help reduce the length of stay for patients at Shropshire's major hospitals, the trust that manages them has said.

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Royal Shrewsbury Hospital

Doctors and nurses at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) said the support, in the evenings, at weekends and during Bank Holidays will improve patient flow.

The trust's first cohort of medical assistants (MAs) will work with medical and surgical staff.

The MAs will be paid to work fixed hours during evenings, weekends and bank holidays to support on-call and ward-cover junior doctors and ward nurses with specific tasks including siting cannulas, taking blood samples and blood cultures and performing ECGs (electrocardiograms).

The role will allow MAs to carry out the relatively simple tasks, helping to free up the time of senior members of staff.

MAs are senior medical students who have been signed off as competent in these specific tasks by senior nursing skills educators. They will work under the supervision of the on-call doctors.

Dr Koottalai Srinivasan, Hospital Dean, said: “We are delighted to welcome our first cohort of medical assistants.

“This initiative should help improve patient flow and safety by supporting our very busy medical and nursing teams on the wards.

“I want to extend my thanks to Denise Rotchell, temporary staffing manager, the recruitment team, Nancy Moreton and Karen Bryan, senior nurse skills educators, senior members of the medical executive committee and the trust executives for their support for this positive initiative.”

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