November 06, 2023 - 474 views
Llinos Williams, a physician associate in orthogeriatrics, has picked up a Health Board Achievement award for going the 'extra mile' in patient care after been nominated by orthogeriatrician Vedamurthy Adhiyaman (Adhi).
She works with Vedamurthy to manage older patients with hip and thigh-bone fractures.
The physician's role is to help with the assessment and management of this cohort of patients. However, Adhi believes Llinos has evolved her role into something much broader over the past three years.
He said: “She has taken on many duties that are above and beyond her job description. She always carries a smile and does her job without complaining. She is an absolute delight to the team.”
Since the appointment of an orthogeriatrician in Glan Clwyd Hospital, in 2019, the performance indicators for the treatment of older people according to the hip fracture database had drastically improved.
They have advanced to a point where the specialty now shows a better than average performance in Wales, across key areas such as:
Prompter assessment by an orthogeriatrician
Less delirious patients
More patients on bone protection, and
More pattients returning to their original place of residence
Adhi added: “Due to our proactive management, our delirium figures are much better than the national average - 84% of our patients were not delirious following surgery, compared to 63% nationally. None of this could have been possible without the support of Llinos.
“Duties that Llinos has taken on, which are not part of her job plan include talking to patients and families about diagnosis, prognosis including discussing DNACPR, leading the board rounds, fracture liaison work, 120-day follow up, supporting the newly appointed doctors, etc.
“Llinos has taken the lead to conduct daily board rounds to facilitate patient care and flow. With her experience and knowledge, she also reviews patients with conditions other than femoral fractures and everyone including consultants and registrars in orthopaedics seeks her advice regarding medical matters.”
Llinos did a quality improvement project around the length of time patients were denied food before surgery, revealed Vedamurthy.
Llinos subsequently made recommendations about not leaving patients without food for too long.
Unable to prescribe in her role, Llinos has also conducted her own national survey of PAs and published her findings and recommendation in the Future Hospital Journal.
She hopes to influence regulators to speed up the process to allow PAs to prescribe.
Adhi also shone a light on the work Llinos has done to help international medical graduates feel welcomed and assimilated into Glan Clwyd Hospital.
He said: “It can be challenging and daunting when they start their first job on the ward.
“Llinos provides them with valuable support and guides them to complete their duties, as well as always making sure that all tasks are completed before leaving - even if it means spending longer hours on the wards.
“Llinos is always eager to learn, and organises weekly clinical teachings. With her insight into the difficulties faced by international medical graduates, Llinos has contributed to a paper on why more of them are referred to the General Medical Council (GMC), which is going to be published in the Medicolegal Journal.”
In addition to clinical duties, caring Llinos brings cakes on patients’ birthdays to make their day special and has organized video calls with families to help them celebrate, when visiting was restricted during the Covid pandemic.
Never short of compassion for others, Llinos is now growing her hair for a year to donate to the Princess trust.
“In summary,” said Adhi. “Llinos has gone miles beyond her role to improve patient care and, with her knowledge, capabilities, helpful attitude and pleasant manner, she is a great asset to the NHS.”
Nick Napier-Andrews, of award sponsor ID Medical, said: “Llinos’ story was a fantastic example of the above-and-beyond attitude we all associate with NHS staff.
“Congratulations to her on winning this award, as well as the other finalists for their outstanding efforts. We’re proud to have supported this award which really showcases the outstanding efforts of Betsi Cadwaladr staff.”
Jez Nash, Chief Executive for overall award sponsor Centerprise International, said: “In our sixth year sponsoring the BCUHB Achievement Awards, I continue to be impressed by the outstanding commitment of NHS staff in North Wales.
“They are innovative in their approach to care provision and demonstrate relentless compassion for their patients and colleagues.
“We were delighted to share the occasion with the 500 NHS staff at the awards, and proud to be able to continue our association with a great night celebrating their efforts.
“Huge congratulations to everyone shortlisted at this year’s awards.”
