EUROPEAN PRESSURE ULCER ADVISORY PANEL

In 1995 the Dutch Ministry of Health established a Steering Committee to tackle key aspects of pressure ulcer prevention and management. Four principle areas of activity were identified; registration (how large is the problem of pressure ulcers) and implementation strategies (how should new initiatives developed in the centres ‘where it all happens’ be diffused to all doctors and nurses throughout the country). The final two key activities were the development of a ‘quality mark’ for pressure redistributing devices (which devices are effective and which fail to achieve the claims made on their behalf) and finally education (primarily for patients and their carers, but also for GPs and home care nurses).

Progress has been achieved in all four areas managed by the Steering Committee. A telephone helpline has been established where patients can call with their questions on prevention and treatment. All questions are passed to specialised nurses and the answers are provided, by phone, to the patient who made the initial call. Increasingly the manufacturers of pressure redistributing devices must establish whether their products are effective before gaining access to the marketplace. This reverses our previous history where the product would be released and then the health care system would try and establish whether it worked as claimed by the manufacturer! A training course for specialised nurses has been established to empower them to create change within their work place. The government or the appropriate governmental organisations have financially supported each of these three projects.

Finally some new and very good news! The registration project has received almost one quarter of a million pounds funding over the next three years to allow annual monitoring of the number of patients with pressure ulcers in every health care provider across the Netherlands. Since 1995 two large prevalence studies have been conducted with leadership from Ruud Halfens and Gerry Bours from the University of Maastricht. However these surveys relied upon the participating institutions meeting their costs so continuity of the surveyed population could not be guaranteed. Now with the new funding this project can both continue and can extend the number of sites surveyed.

This is exciting news and emphasises the value of the Steering Committee and of gaining political support for the topic of pressure ulcers. I thought you would enjoy hearing of this development from the Netherlands.

Jeen Haalboom