New equipment to help patients with hard-to-find veins at Ysbyty Gwynedd

A piece of equipment known as a vein finder is being used for inpatients at Ysbyty Gwynedd in order to improve the experience for patients with hard-to-find veins.

Anyone who has difficult veins will know the discomfort when there are failed attempts to locate a vein, such as when having bloods taken.

Having noticed the need to improve the experience for patients with difficult veins, Junior Doctor Lois Williams secured a £3,000 grant from Health Education and Improvement Wales and around £600 from Menter Môn to purchase the equipment through the Trainees Transforming Training initiative.

Dr Williams said: “We’ve been very lucky to obtain a grant to purchase a vein finder and we hope this will empower nurses, phlebotomists, medical students and junior doctors to take blood and cannulate from patients who are difficult to obtain access. It works by infrared, which can bounce back and show us visibility of the vein which you cannot do with the naked eye. It also helps to reduce the time we need to attempt cannulating patients and how often we might need to cannulate them because of failed attempts, which can be quite distressing for some patients. Our hope is that this will improve the quality of patient care in the future.”

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Source: NHS Wales, 30 April 2024