Staff at the Day Procedure Centre (DPC) at the Lagan Valley Hospital are delighted that the Department of Health’s Permanent Secretary Peter May has given the team an award for all their incredible work to help reduce waiting lists for elective procedures.
Since the Regional Centre opened its doors in October 2020, the team has carried out 6,000 priority procedures, even during the pandemic.
The Elective Care Management in the Department of Health has initiated a monthly award for teams who have delivered outstanding results and the DPC team is one of its first recipients!
Before Covid struck, the Lagan Valley DPC had been identified as the Regional Day Case facility for non-urgent surgical procedures.
However, prior to its opening, the pandemic hit and there was concern that throughout the Region, many urgent cancer procedures/investigations were being cancelled due to staffing issues and the requirement to increase ICU capacity.
This prompted the staff in the DPC to reconsider their work and as a result, all available theatre lists were converted to priority lists that would be available to the Region for appropriate urgent procedures. As a result, over 6,000 priority treatments took place during the pandemic.
These were provided in a number of areas including General Surgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Renal and Plastic Surgery for skin cancer.
The DPC at Lagan Valley has now reverted back to its original purpose – to provide capacity for non-urgent routine surgical procedures. To allow this to happen a number of important actions had to be completed, namely:
- Centralisation of waiting lists within the DPC at Lagan Valley
- Centralised booking of all lists
- Text reminder service implemented
- Performance monitoring of theatre lists to ensure all available capacity is utilised
Peter May said, “I want to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of the team at Lagan Valley Hospital in their work to see the Regional Day Procedure Centre successfully reduce routine waiting lists for the agreed DPC procedures.
“In making this award, particular note was taken of the enhanced communication structures devised and implemented by the team aimed at reducing lost capacity due to patients not attending. I also am heartened to learn of the team’s patient focused work in streamlining patient documentation to make it more comprehensible to patients.
“To successfully tackle long waiting lists for elective care we must maximise productivity and it is those behaviours manifested by the team at the DPC that will help us achieve this.”
Assistant Director for Elective surgery Chris Allam said, “Since the DPC opened the team has carried out over 6,000 priority procedures and undoubtedly saved lives. I am extremely proud of the dedication of all the staff who have worked tirelessly to review and improve systems for patients. They really are at the heart of everything we do.”
”The Chief Executive of the South Eastern Trust, Roisin Coulter added, “The Day Procedure Centre at the Lagan Valley Hospital is testimony to the extraordinary amount of work and dedication that all staff have demonstrated since the unit opened. The staff in the Centre should be rightly proud of this award and all that they have achieved.”