District Physician from the Western Isles visit Northern Sweden

The transnational learning is an important part of the RemoAge project. Northern Sweden was recently visited by Kate Dawson, District Physician from the Western Isles, who wanted to take part of the work being done within the project.

– The project is dealing with issues I feel are very important to my own community, issues related to our rural and ageing population. I need to develop the resources within the medical community locally rather than waiting for something magically would happen, so that our patients would get the care that they need. I got intested in how the RemoAge project might help us do that and how other areas tackle the same issues, says Dr Kate Dawson. Dr Kate Dawson is one of the most active GPs in the project. She is passionate about working with frail older people and how they can be supported on the basis of a comprehensive geriatric assessment and multi-professional collaboration. During her visit, she shared her experience of identifying frail elderly people and how they work with multi-disciplinary teams to support these people. Amongst other things, she in return took part of how Haparanda in northern Sweden uses video as a support in the home. Something that was completely new to her. – We need something to overcome that time and travel barrier. It made me think a little bit more about how important it is to apply political pressure to resolve some of the connectivity issues. Just to show you can deliver better health care if you got better technology. And cheaper, says Dr Kate Dawson.