Neighbourhood District Nursing research welcomed by health minister

Vaughan Gething, Welsh Government Minister for Health and Social Services, has welcomed the publication of a University of South Wales (USW) review into three Neighbourhood District Nursing Pilots. The two-year Welsh Government funded pilots commenced in April 2018.

The USW report highlights what has been learnt from the prototype Neighbourhood District Nursing Teams and how they fit within the 'A Healthier Wales' strategy.

In March 2019, the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee held a one-day inquiry into community and district nursing. In August that year, the Committee published a report on that inquiry which included 10 recommendations. Nine of these were accepted by the Minister.

Two of these recommendations related to the Neighbourhood District Nursing Pilots, which were evaluated in the USW research.

The first was if the pilots’ evaluation were positive, the learning should be rolled out nationally.

The second recommended that, if caseload e-scheduling systems being tested as part of the pilots evaluated well, it too should be rolled out nationally.

To support the national roll out of learning from the pilots, the Minister has decided to appoint a National Nursing Lead for Primary & Community Care as part of the Strategic Programme for Primary Care. This post will start at the end of November 2020.

The Minister also said that health boards that were not part of the initial pilots will receive funding to start work on developing a national approach to caseload e-scheduling, with the National Welsh Shared Services Partnership leading on developing an all-Wales contract.