A RAFT of controversial changes proposed for the NHS in Oxfordshire have made headlines over the past year.

Less is talked about the good work already being carried out by hospital staff across the county every day to make sure everyone gets the care they need.

Here we turn turn the spotlight on three services launched by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the past two years which are offering high-quality acute care and also tackling the county's serious bed-blocking problem.

WHEN John Radcliffe Hospital ward sister Linsey Davis set up her Ambulatory Assessment Unit (AAU) in November 2015, she said it was based 'in two rooms in Geratology with one-and-a-half nurses pinched from another unit'.

Eighteen months on, her team say they are here to stay and can only get bigger and stronger.

Soon after it was set up, the AAU rapidly expanded and moved upstairs, where it now sees up to 40 patients a day who need urgent care but not A&E or an overnight stay.

The patients include people who cannot wait for an outpatient appointment and require straightforward support like intravenous treatment, scans, antibiotics or fluids.

Dr Jordan Bower, one of 20 doctors and therapists who takes on shifts at the unit, says: "A lot of people don't know what 'ambulatory' means.

"Technically, it means being able to walk – it's a unit which deals with people who walk into hospital and out again. The key thing is that you don't stay in hospital overnight.

"Patients who have an urgent problem get a specialist and several teams if they need them: they get tests, diagnosis and treatment and continue their recovery at home."

The AAU was first set up with frail, elderly patients in mind but charge nurse Raymond Atienza-Hawkes said it had 'evolved'.

Last August the AAU expanded from Level 4 to Level 5B of the hospital and activity has since doubled, with six permanent beds.

It is also now the home of a new Acute Hospital at Home (AHaH) service, which sees nurses from OUH make up to 300 visits to patients' homes each month.

Mr Atienza-Hawkes said feedback from patients on that service had so far been '100 per cent positive'.

He said: "They love having the nurses come and visit them.

"They're looked after under the arm of the AAU with all the expertise that needs to happen, but nurses assess how the patient is doing at home.

"The function of a a hospital, which normally would be provided within the building, has now spread beyond the walls."

Last October OUH also re-launched its Home Assessment Reablement Team (HART), which provides short-term domiciliary care to patients.

As demand on the NHS in Oxfordshire continues to grow it is expected that all three services will need to grow with it.

In December Ms Davis won in the outstanding achievement category at OUH's Staff Recognition Awards for creating the service and inspiring the team.

She said: "It's very satisfying that it’s done so well, when you consider we started in a tiny room. It's happened a lot faster than people expected.

"There's always a challenge to do more. We want to do things better and we need to make sure we continue to provide good quality care to deal with patients we are seeing.

"It's a shift in the whole healthcare economy and what's lovely is bringing the hospital and community together a bit more."