Stracathro Hospital by Brechin is laying siege to new territory, 10 years after the battle to save the place from closure was launched.
Staff and patients are now brimming with optimism, believing there is a bright future ahead in a hospital that has ambitions to be a centre of excellence, has been kitted out with “state of the art” equipment, and where major investment has created a modern, appealing environment that is attracting patients from Peterhead to Perth.
That is new territory for the hospital that just a decade ago had difficulty recruiting staff, as the axe hung over the site.
Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Mr Anand Pillai started work on Monday in the recently-refurbished operating suite at Stracathro, enticed away from a surgical post in Glasgow to what he expects to be a bright future in Angus. “I am impressed,” he said. “They have got a great thing going here.”
Today will see the start of a trial of a new post-operative process, expected to improve the recovery of patients having joint replacements.
The trial will see patients given a continuous low dose of local anaesthetic into the joint for up to 24 hours after their operation, hopefully eliminating or reducing the need for strong pain-killing drugs and the potential side effects.
If it is successful and there is no reason to expect otherwise the pilot will be introduced elsewhere.Mental health unitIn another area of the site, where until very recently there were long-derelict buildings, a new mental health unit is taking shape, just a few weeks after the first sod was cut. It’s all good news for those who were determined Stracathro would survive, but the hospital is a very different place from anything that was there before.
“It is a different service that is being offered,” said Angus provost Ruth Leslie Melville, who co-founded the Friends of Stracathro with Margaret Smith. “It is a 21st century service.”
The Friends of Stracathro was born when fear of closure sparked a fiercely loyal local population to start the fight to save the hospital. The organisation not only fought for the survival of Stracathro but has been responsible for funding innovative new equipment.
“Those who wanted the hospital to return to what it was find it isn’t what it was,” said Mrs Leslie Melville. “It is something that is appropriate to the 21st century.”
Lorraine Paterson, a senior charge nurse in the theatre suite, remembers the old but is committed to the new Stracathro, where she is a key member of the team that is developing a centre of excellence in non-emergency surgery.
Lorraine started nurse training at Stracathro in 1978 and, after a break to have children and work abroad, has given continuous service to the Angus hospital since 1992. She was on duty when there was a major road accident near the hospital that, at the time, still had an accident and emergency department. Surgeons carried out five amputations in one night on the victims of the accident.
“It isn’t appropriate to do that here now,” said Lorraine. “The hospital isn’t set up for it. That isn’t what it is good at.”Theatre’s strengthsShe explained the strength of the theatre team is non-emergency operations, although that does not necessarily mean minor operations.
Surgery at Stracathro can be complex and lengthy. Teams are dedicated to non-emergency surgery and that means sessions are not interrupted by doctors being called away to trauma emergencies. Neither are non-emergency operations cancelled at short notice because the theatre is needed for a cancer patient or other emergency.
Alastair Adam, the service manager at Stracathro, said the investment in infrastructure and training is paying dividends and the site has been transformed.
“With new advances in training and equipment, it is all about delivering the right procedure with the right staff that is right for the patient,” said Mr Adam.