"Lifeline service"

I have been a patient at the NHS Centre for Integrative Care (NHS CIC) for 8 years and I feel that I must highlight the specialist and expert care that I received from Dr O'Dowd since I was initially referred and her patience, kindness and compassion sets her apart from other professionals that I have met previously in the NHS over 40 years as a carer and now for past 25 years requiring care myself. I also must mention that on my admission to the ward the nurses and Dr Caulfield was exceptional. Dr Caulfield is very dedicated and a credit to his profession and is very thorough in the way he tries to help and goes the extra mile and cares about what matters to me. As someone with a complex diagnosis who has exhausted all other NHS treatments that are currently available, feel very privileged to have him as their doctor and access to the specialist and skilled nursing care and am grateful that a hospital such as this exists in Scotland with the ability to offer in-patient beds for those like me who will clinically benefit from referral with more complex conditions and also for on-going out-patient care for those with chronic and degenerative conditions.

Although I have highlighted two professionals that I have had the most contact with who should be applauded for their approach to their patients and as a credit to the NHS and their profession.  I must say that this is very much a team approach delivered at the CIC and all the staff work together and certainly make this an exemplary service that NHS Scotland should be extremely proud of and is worthy of recognition and the title - centre of excellence - given the gold standard care that is provided both as an in-patient and out-patient, though both services are distinctly different by complement and support each other.

I think the staff at the hospital provide person-centred care that is holistic and individualised and works in co-production with the patient to improve self-care by improving self-management techniques and by teaching the tools that are needed to help me to manage my multiple complex long-term conditions. Words cannot adequately explain how special this hospital and innovative approaches of care delivered uniquely at the NHS Centre for Integrative Care really is, and given that this hospital has achieved 100% patient satisfaction ratings it should be celebrated and other staff in the NHS should be encouraged to visit to learn more about how they deliver exceptional high quality care.

Since attending this hospital I believe I have certainly saved the NHS considerably, as I have significantly reduced my medication and I need to use less NHS services as I am better able to understand my condition to be able cope and self-manage. I credit the hospital for the fact that my daughters still have me around as I was like a zombie with the medication my GP kept prescribing and was unable to function. I now have more energy, and I am more active and partaking in life once more and even in my 70's able to volunteer and give back and despite my illness I am living positively. I have also stopped a very high smoking habit of over 40 years and have been able to continue to remain a non-smoker. I have also significantly improved the nutritional benefits in my diet and also implement the self-management skills that I would be unable to get support with elsewhere and I have been taught to pace myself and to reduce my stress which has made a considerable difference to how I view my condition and approach to life. I am now active in the community where I was previously isolated, housebound and overwhelmed by my symptoms and circumstances.

I have also been fortunate to have been able to attended several courses at the hospital including Dr Reilly's WEL Programme, Stephanie the physiotherapists Moving Into Balance Course and Dr O'Dowd and Catronia the nurses Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Course and have found them all extremely beneficial and informative.

The expert care that I have received specifically at the CIC has helped to restore my faith in the medical profession and the NHS and the CIC is certainly the 'Jewel in the Crown' of the NHS and I believe it is a national resource that should be being invested in and expanded, and I am horrified to hear that there are plans by Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board to close the in-patient ward.

The ward is essential for those patients like me with complex chronic conditions and admission is essential to allow the clinicians working in the unit both the medical and nursing staff to be able to carry out a thorough holistic review for those patients who are assessed by a clinician to benefit from an admission to the in-patient services. I think this referral to the in-patient service is an essential care pathway for patients like me so that symptoms can be assessed as they can fluctuate throughout the day such as pain, fatigue and importantly sleep issues can also be addressed in the ward as well as providing emotional support and other treatments provided by the skilled nursing staff, medics and other support staff.

I have found it important to be taken out of the circumstances and turmoil that people with serious chronic conditions like me can find themselves with a multitude of issues and to be able to be admitted and can reflect and have time to start to heal and be able to then identify what needs to change when people return back to their life and this time with nursing staff particularly throughout the day and night over the week is invaluable and therapeutic and is an essential catalyst to enable changes. Patients like me though I live less than ten miles way when my health needs dictate that I require an admission, I physically could not travel back and forward on public transport or other by other methods given my medical conditions meaning that I do require access to the ward and to in-patient nursing care when my clinician deems necessary.

To say that a bed will be found in a hotel would not be suitable for me as it would certainly undermine the therapeutic approach delivered at the hospital and this expert and specialist care could definitely not be provided elsewhere in another ward without the specialist staff at the CIC, as this is the only unit of its kind in Scotland, it is therefore very important that it is preserved. The therapeutic model of care and purpose built healing environment are intrinsically linked and I think that those who think that similar care can be delivered by boarding patients elsewhere show that they do not understand or appreciate the benefits the unique model of integrative care delivered at the CIC which in my opinion completely differs from the medical model delivered elsewhere in the NHS nor can they understand the complex needs of this patient cohort who attend this hospital.

I have previously had experience of other services that have not been as helpful and been referred to the pain service and was told by the pain service staff that I could only attend one service either the NHS Centre for Integrative Care or the pain service, but they said that they advised that it was best to attend the CIC as they had much more to offer, than they could. I attended the pain service courses that they had offered and by comparison they were certainly not as comprehensive as the CIC. I do agree that the Residential Pain Service is needed but their ethos and culture is completely different.

The CIC is a holistic service and treats pain but also all the other symptoms that go along with the having a long-term condition and have a holistic focus and they also provide on-going support throughout the duration of the degenerative and life-limiting condition if the clinician deems it is necessary. The Pain Service is a bio-medical model which is completely different from integrative medicine.  I don't think we currently have enough in-patient services in Scotland for people with chronic complex conditions and the patients who depend on this unique model of care provided at the CIC should not be evicted to try to make room for another service, as these patients who use the ward will have no where else to go that meets their treatment needs as effectively and cost efficiently.

I would ask for these plans to be halted and for the NHS Scotland decision makers, MSPs and Health Board members to urgently visit the NHS CIC including the ward and other services at this hospital and take the time to speak to patients and staff. I feel these plans are detrimental to the patients like me.  It is seriously negatively affecting the me as I am really suffering at the thought that this lifeline service will be removed.