Routine wound care or dressing changes
We do routine dressing changes for patients. Ideally, this should be booked in advance as per the plan.
A wound care plan may come internally from our team, or can be directed by a hospital/secondary care team - sometimes you will need to check the documentation from a discharge summary or A&E visit.
Nursing hub appointments should be utilized if we need to see a patient sooner than we have capacity for. This includes sending a patient to urgent care if required.
Infected wounds
For those wounds that are potentially infected, these should be reviewed within 48 hours so that we can prescribe antibiotics if required. These wounds should also be re-dressed.
Symptoms of an infected wound may include:
- Increased redness
- Swelling at site of the wound
- Discharge/pus from wound
- Increasing pain on wound
- Pungent smell
- High temperature
- An ulcer on the bony part of the body e.g. heels, hips, tailbone
- Ongoing bleeding from wound