By Brigitte Collins, Global Clinical Education Manager
The MS Trust conference gave us the opportunity to share our expertise and knowledge around the Qufora IrriSedo range, discuss case studies and talk with healthcare professionals to understand bowel treatment pathways for multiple sclerosis (MS) as well as ways of improving care.
Attending the ‘Developing a consensus bladder and bowel management pathway for MS’ seminar provided great insight into the guidelines and how they work in practice.
How to implement MS consensus bladder & bowel management guidelines and pathway in your MS service
Sue Thomas, Independent Healthcare Consultant, Ruth Austin-Vincent, Stakeholder Engagement Officer, MS Society and Liam Rice, MS Clinical Nurse Specialist, Sheffield
Liam Rice (MS Clinical Nurse Specialist at Sheffield NHS Foundation Trust) delivered a superb presentation around how his clinics work within his hospital. One of the key messages that I took from his presentation is how he has a bladder and bowel only clinic.
As Liam pointed out this allows focus and more in-depth conversation around these issues, which demonstrates the importance of treating bowel problems to the patient. Such a great service.
Poster presentation: Reducing missed appointments in the Bladder Bowel Clinic for patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Bhawani Mainali, MS Clinical Nurse Specialist, Royal Free Hospital London NHS Foundation Trust.
Bhawani Mainali wanted to discover why patients were often missing appointments and a solution to try to limit this problem.
Prior to the study, patients had multiple referrals generated, leading to duplications across the system. As a result, many appointments were missed with their local Bladder and Bowel team.
Patients suggested that they would like regular reminders using communications that worked for them (i.e., those who did not have a mobile could be contacted by landline). They also suggested having joint clinics with their MS Clinical Nurse Specialist present.
The new joint clinic was then initiated in June 2022, and the team found that having this streamlined service has resulted in:
- Improved attendance rate
- Improved patient care
- Reduced workload for healthcare professionals
There was lots of leadership learning to be had with this study, notably that working together with other departments has improved patient care and that optimising their resources has helped save time between healthcare professionals.
Brigitte enjoyed this poster presentation as it highlighted what matters most to the patient – avoiding transfers between departments and attending multiple hospital appointments across various departments. Instead, their appointments can stay together in one place.
Further information:
If you would like to learn more about how rectal irrigation can benefit patients with MS, we encourage you to read Julien’s story and how rectal irrigation significantly improved his quality of life – learn more.
