New passport for health

An innovative ‘Health Passport’ scheme which supports patients with learning disabilities in Warrington is being showcased at an international conference this week.
The joint project between the Warrington Community Services Unit and Warrington & Halton Hospitals will be showcased at the World Health Organisation’s annual International conference on Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services, which is being held at Manchester University from, tomorrow, April 14 to 16.
The passport is a document which holds information about an individual’s needs and likes and dislikes, that hospital staff might not otherwise be able to find out. It is completed by family member, carers or the individual and remains with the patient during their stay in hospital.
It is based on a traffic light system; red for relevant medical information, amber for relevant clinical information and green for information which is important to the patient.
The passport idea was developed from an existing hospital passport by Judith Lydon and Cathy Walmsley, two community nurses with the Warrington Community Services’ Access All Areas learning disability support service, in partnership with the Learning Disability Forum at Warrington Hospital.
It was initially aimed at vulnerable patients who had learning disabilities but has become a valuable tool for all vulnerable patients and is now being rolled out to community healthcare professionals.
Judith said: “It’s a huge honour to be selected to speak at the WHO conference, which is a fantastic opportunity to discuss ideas on how to reduce health inequalities with an international audience.
“We are really proud of the Health Passport, which is a personalised guide for a vulnerable patients care, helping to improve communication between patients and medical staff.
Michele Lord, Quality Improvement Matron at Warrington and Halton Hospitals Foundation Trust said: “The innovation of the Health Passport is an important step in ensuring that we can better understand and care for patients who are less able to communicate.
“They can be used to make better assessments of patient’s needs and better care plans to meet those needs. It is important that nursing and other staff are better trained in caring for vulnerable patients and utilising the health passports is part of that.”
Judith will share a platform with some of the world’s most influential health experts at the conference health inequalities, including the President of the Royal College of Physicians, Professor Ian Gilmore, and National Director for Health and Work, Dame Carol Black.
Other distinguished speakers will present their experiences from as far afield as Australia, Toronto and Taiwan.