The Development of a Community Stoma Care Service in Leeds

The aim of this poster is to share the process adopted when developing a stoma care service in the Leeds community, as a result of an identified gap in service provision. In addition the poster will further identify the benefits of this unique service by means of a patient satisfaction survey.
Historically in the Leeds community, district nurses provided stoma care. However, if specialist stoma care skills were required, patients were advised to access the stoma care nurses based in the hospital, often causing problems for patients due to transport, parking and mobility issues. These problems were further highlighted when a member of the management team for the Leeds Primary Care Trust encountered a personal experience. She underwent bowel surgery, which resulted in a stoma formation. And it was when she was advised to attend the hospital for stoma support that she identified a gap in service provision. At the same time, there were a lot of government documents encouraging care closer to home. Services that would serve people better if they were placed in local communities should be located there and not in general hospitals (Department of Health, 2006). 

For both of these reasons, the Leeds community stoma care service was established. The service has been developed by providing specialist stoma care support to both new and existing ostomists. As well as providing regular education and training to community nurses. In order to evaluate the Leeds community stoma care service, a patient satisfaction survey was created, providing patients with the opportunity to provide feedback on the stoma care service.  One area highlighted by the survey was the reduced number of hospital attendances as a result of the community stoma care service. Since the survey, changes have been made in order to improve the service as we continually strive to meet patient’s stoma care needs.