Care provided to older people has become a key issue in Europe, due to the increasing growth of the elderly population. The care for elderly involves home nursing, community, residential and hospitalization. Elderly prefer to be in their own homes and communities rather than being in hospital or residential homes.
In Cyprus, DITIS (Networked Collaboration Supporting Healthcare Teams) is a network of medical collaboration and a system that supports the dynamic creation, management and co-ordination of virtual collaborative medical teams, for the continuous treatment of patients at home and specialist healthcare centers. But Cyprus did not have district nurses to deal with wound care. The system was running differently to other western European countries, although there were few options available.
In Larnaca and Paralimni hospitals there used to be a nurse dealing with wound care, ECGs and providing the dressings. In Nicosia, a company which provided specialist wound care through VAC’s, they were dealing with smaller wounds too, although unaffordable for majority of the patients. Another option was to hire a private nurse to come daily to the house and do it. Depending on the type of wound and how long it will take to heal should influence one patient’s decision. Additionally if it was a minor wound the hospital can show patients how to do it.
Although in Cyprus there are centers to provide care-nursing rehabilitation services, a mobile unit specialized in wound monitoring and treatment at home was imperative. In Cyprus, it is quite common for the elderly to be taken care of by their families at home instead of sending them off to a nursing home. Therefore, for the sake of qualified treatment and ease for all parties we needed to get the family involved with the treatment in order to ensure compliance, faster wound healing and correct long term care.
Two years ago, under the initiative of Dr. Angelos Karatzias, Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeon, holder of Specialty Diploma in Wound Healing and Tissue Repair, Wound healing - Professional Mobile Unit was formed. The company also known as AKP Wound Healing (AKP stands for Angelos Karatzias & Petsas) was officially established in October 2015.
This initiative brought together Dr. Karatzias, Angelos Petsas and Andreas Petsas in a strong and reliable partnership, based on knowledge, experience and dedication, and aiming to provide the community with a home care company dedicated to dealing with chronic wounds and traumas for people unable or unwilling to be transferred from their home, hospital or nursing home.
