Our older people day unit is called Belsay located on the Campus for Ageing Vitality. Here we offer rapid access appointments and comprehensive assessment clinics, often preventing hospital admissions.
The day unit holds comprehensive geriatric assessment clinics. These are run by specialist nurses, doctors specialising in older people’s medicine, physio and occupational therapists. This is called a ‘multidisciplinary approach’.
Working together, they carry out a holistic and multidisciplinary assessment of each patient’s medical conditions and functional abilities.
These clinics mean our staff can look after older people with complex medical and physical conditions, often avoiding a hospital admission, or supporting someone immediately after their hospital admission.
Rapid access to expert care
We also provide rapid access appointments to review patients whose problems start to deteriorate very quickly, with the aim of preventing hospital admission. We work closely with other community based services to make the care our older patients received as smooth as possible.
Our staff are committed to looking after every patient with dignity and respect, helping them to build confidence, improve well-being and continue to be as physically and mentally active as possible.
Referrals can be made by GPs or doctors working in other areas of our hospitals who would like their patients to benefit from a holistic multidisciplinary assessment.
We run an Advice and Guidance service for GPs to improve accessibility to our services.
Multi specialty clinics
Within the day units we run multiple speciality clinics, for example in:
- movement disorders (Parkinson’s disease and other related conditions)
- dementia, and
- stroke
We also run a before surgery (pre-operative) assessment clinic where we carry out medical assessments and give advice to our patients to ensure they are as fitness possible before having their operation.
Our day unit benefits from an active research agenda, built on strong links with academic colleagues at Newcastle University who work hand in hand with our clinicians. This gives our patients the opportunity to become involved in research focused on conditions affecting older people.
Find out more:
National Institute for Health Research Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre
