Follow Royal’s example on waiting lists, hospitals told

Jun 13 2008 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

A LIVERPOOL Hospital’s success in cutting patient waiting times is being held up as an example for NHS trusts around the country.

Surgeons, nurses, porters, managers, anaesthetists and admin staff got together to think of ways to shorten the patient journey for orthopaedic surgery at The Royal Liverpool Hospital.

This meant the number of planned operations taking place within 18 weeks of referral improved from 35% in April, 2007, to 88% in March, 2008. The number of patients waiting over 11 weeks for in-patient planned treatment fell from 261 to nine.

Theatre start times before 9am have been improved by 20%, and total cancellations have been reduced by 7%. Patient cancellations have been reduced by 30%.

The hospital has been working by the Lean method, which eliminates waste and improves efficiency.

Judith Adams, Divisional General Manager for Surgery, said: “This area is of concern for many health professionals and we at the Royal wanted to do something about it.

“This has been a huge project which has changed the way we work in theatres for the better and improved the level of care for our patients.

“We have looked at the whole of a patients’ journey and to stop issues arising in theatre that could have been solved earlier on.

“Our staff have done a fantastic job, with massively reduced waiting times and cancellations, improved efficiency and patient safety and also a better staff working experience.

“Representatives from trusts across the country have been here to see how our efforts have worked.”

The Elective Orthopaedic and Theatre Improvement Team, who have implemented the new system won the Team of the Year Award for Innovation for their achievements at a ceremony held at the hospital on Wednesday.

Royal and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust chair Judith Greensmith said: “It was obviously a tremendous challenge for everyone involved, to work with such a large cross- section of staff, to create a shared vision and to work together to speed up the processes.

“But this ambitious project was a triumphant success.”