Donation to provide better care for joint surgery patients at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness

The donation from the Friends of Raigmore will allow the hospital's Highland Trauma Unit to buy an additional bladder scanner.

Patients who have had joint surgery, particularly older patients, have a higher incidence of "post-operative urinary retention" than other surgery patients.

Staff in the trauma unit use a bladder scanner to monitor patients’ condition but until now would have to borrow one from another department.

Senior charge nurse Kay MacGregor said: "Post-operative urinary retention has been associated with an increased length of stay for patients, patient discomfort and also a risk of them developing urinary tract infections.

“In the past we would borrow a bladder scanner from another department whenever we needed to check patients, however with our focus on quality improvement and a desire to catheterise fewer patients we have found that we are now scanning more patients – so when the opportunity came up for the Friends of Raigmore to purchase one for the unit we were thrilled."

Christina Cameron, chairwoman of Friends of Raigmore, said all the group's fundraising came from sales at the gift shop based in the hospital’s main corridor.

"Since the shop opened we have been able to donate over £100,000 worth of equipment to the hospital, which we are all thrilled about," she said.

"We are a completely voluntary group and without our team of dedicated volunteers we would not have reached this wonderful target.

"We would like to say a huge thanks to everyone who has supported this by either donating or purchasing from the shop.

"We’ve had so much support as a group which allows us to support the hospital in ways which benefit patients."

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.