Prior to the formation of the Mid and South Essex Community Collaborative (MSECC) Tissue Viability Team, the three tissue viability services had very little interaction or shared learning from each other. Patients in different parts of the system were accessing different levels of care as a result.
The tissue viability team in mid Essex faced challenges due to its small size, leading to difficulties in providing long-term care for patients with chronic wounds.
In other areas of mid and south Essex, ambulatory tissue viability clinics were in place. The ambulatory clinics meant people with lower leg wounds requiring long-term care could attend a clinic and have a tissue viability specialist look over their wound on a regular basis. This allowed service users to manage their wound care more independently, with the assurance that their wound is being monitored and reviewed by an experienced clinician.
Expanding services for people with lower leg wounds requiring long-term care in mid Essex was seen as a key step in reducing unwarranted variation in community services for people across the MSECC footprint.