Merton Community Nursing Teams clinch award for transforming wound care
Our community nursing teams are over the moon after receiving a silver award in the Wound Care Collaborator category at the Journal of Wound Care (JWC) Awards 2025.
The awards celebrate excellence in wound care, recognising innovation, collaboration, and outstanding contributions to improving patient outcomes.
The healing champions entered the award in recognition of their pioneering approach to delivering wound care management, in partnership with the Health Innovation Network (HIN), through the implementation of the National Wound Care Strategy Programme (NWCS), aimed at improving patient experience and leg ulcer management.
Pressure ulcers are wounds caused by prolonged pressure on the skin, often affecting people with limited mobility, while venous leg ulcers are slow-healing wounds on the lower legs due to poor circulation.
The team's best practice guidance emphasised the need for an innovative approach to managing leg ulcers. With HIN's support in process mapping to identify gaps in the existing pathway, nurses were able to conduct comprehensive patient assessments, minimising treatment variations. As a result, this approach made a significant impact on wound care management, leading to faster healing rates. It also allowed wounds to heal before becoming more complex, which helped reduce the caseload for Tissue Viability Nurses.
During the project, the teams harnessed the power of digital technology, focusing on staff training and reviewing clinical systems to support virtual patient reviews and improve data collection, ensuring a higher standard of wound care management. They also streamlined collaboration with District Nurses, PDNs, and GPs to ensure timely referrals to services such as vascular and dermatology.
Building on its success, the team will work with primary care to implement this pathway for managing leg wounds, with a focus on population health across the borough. Additionally, CLCH has introduced its own training program for leg ulcer management, requiring staff to update their training every two years to maintain ongoing competency and ensure that the highest standards of patient care are being delivered into our communities.
Esther-Sundae Sabio, Clinical Operations Manager for Population Health - Community Nursing team said: “The Merton Community Nursing team has always been dedicated to improving the quality of care, and I am delighted that their hard work and commitment to providing high-quality, evidence-based care have been recognised.
Leg ulcers represent a significant portion of the community nursing caseload, and this collaboration with the Tissue Viability team, the Practice Development Nurse, and the national team for implementing the leg ulcer pathway has greatly improved caseload management, as well as both patient and staff experience. Additionally, it has provided staff with greater confidence and clearer guidelines on treatment timelines and assessment for leg ulcers.”
Divisional Director of Nursing and Therapies, John McLinden said: We are honoured to be recognised for our commitment to enhancing leg ulcer management in the community. This project has made a significant impact on patient experience, delivering outstanding outcomes—most notably, the healing of the majority of wounds within 12 weeks.
The implementation of the new pathway has made a positive impact on reducing caseload for complex wounds, managing unwarranted variations with management of leg ulcers and on sustainability with reducing waste from dressing changes through reducing patient visits from three times a week to just one per week.
These achievements not only enhance patient care but also improved staff wellbeing by giving them more confidence with managing leg ulcers. This award is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our nurses and the Tissue Viability Service in providing high-quality care to patients.”
