Volunteer group the Friends of Raigmore Hospital have provided the Highland Trauma Unit with an essential piece of equipment to help care for joint surgery patients.
Ward 3A at the city hospital frequently use a bladder scanner to monitor the condition of joint surgery patients. However they have never owned their own.
Following a generous donation by the group, the ward now own their own scanner, helping them to care for their patients, particularly the elderly/
Senior charge nurse Kay MacGregor said: “Post-operative urinary retention has been associated with an increased length of stay for patients, patient discomfort and also a risk of them developing urinary tract infections.
“In the past we would borrow a bladder scanner from another department whenever we needed to check patients however with our focus on quality improvement and a desire to catheterise fewer patients we have found that we are now scanning more patients so when the opportunity came up for the Friends of Raigmore to purchase one for the unit we were thrilled.”
She added: “We are so grateful to the Friends for this donation. we really can’t thank them enough for thinking of us.”
Christina Cameron, chair of the Friends of Raigmore, added that all their fundraising is done through the small gift shop they have based in the hospital’s main corridor.
She said: “Since the shop opened we have been able to donate over £100,000 worth of equipment to the hospital which we are all thrilled about.
“We are a completely voluntary group and without our team of dedicated volunteers we would not have reached this wonderful target. We would like to say a huge thanks to everyone who has supported this by either donating or purchasing from the shop.
“We’ve had so much support as a group which allows us to support the hospital in ways which benefit patients.”