Quality, Research and Innovation :
Anne-Marie Cavanagh, Executive Nurse Director
Ms Anne-Marie Cavanagh, Executive Nurse Director, gave members a real
behind the scenes account of the workings of the Golden Jubilee Hospital.
They enjoyed her fact filled talk. It was evident that Anne-Marie valued the
opportunity to share what the hospital was doing and its contribution to
quality, research and innovation in the NHS.
Setting the scene Anne-Marie explained that the Golden Jubilee Foundation is
one of NHS Scotland’s National Boards along with NHS24 and the Scottish
Ambulance Service rather than a territorial health board such as Greater
Glasgow and Clyde HB. The hospital specialises in three main areas;
orthopaedics, heart and lung and ophthalmology and serves the whole of
Scotland. It does not do Accident and Emergency cases with the exception of
cardiac arrests.
Specialising in these narrow fields increases the frequency of similar
operations being carried out. This gives the surgeons and supporting medical
teams an opportunity to continuously polish and hone their skills. Over time it
has meant better outcomes, shorter stays in hospital and speedier recovery.
The Jubilee now does 25% of all hip and knee joint replacements in Scotland.
The hospital has adopted cutting edge enhanced recovery procedures and
surgical techniques (e.g. CALEDonia Recovery Technique and Computer
Aided Orthopaedic Surgery (or CAOS!?!)). The hospital is also a centre for
excellence for Heart & Lung surgery and medicine and, indeed, is one of the
biggest in the UK. In addition to doing heart transplants, they provide care for
congenital cardiac disease and pulmonary vascular conditions. Last but least
the Jubilee is a leading centre for cataract ops.
There are 6 state of the art operating theatres. This along with the adjoining
hotel, allows the hospital to function as a European Training Centre. The
hospital CCTV links with the hotel’s conference facilities means that
operations can be watched by large groups for training purposes. Of course,
the hotel is also useful for patients and families before, during and after ops.
One unique feature of the Golden Jubilee is that it has a Research Institute.
This is focused on high tech ‘med tech’. In collaboration with Scottish
Enterprise, it attracts industrial investment. Indeed the Institute works at
developing both local and international business partnerships, quite a leap for
NHS Scotland! This means that the Jubilee has a lead on med tech
innovation at an international level.
Anne-Marie was at pains to say that a critical element to the hospitals success
was having a quality framework which addressed safety, effectiveness and a
person centred approach. This ‘triangulation’ of evaluation is embedded in all
they do in terms of budgets, theatres, patients and staff. Every effort goes
into trying to make everything as open, honest and up front as it can be. This
is reflected in patient ‘dashboards’ which makes it clear to patients, visitors
and staff of infection incidents, falls, hand hygiene, etc. (As a recent visitor to
the QEUH and Gartnavel, I observe that this practice is spreading.) Being
open like this has been a challenge to staff but has been found to help better
understanding of patient needs and better diagnosis.
To help illustrate the challenge of introducing new regimes, Anne-Marie
pointed out that the means to avoid scurvy by giving the sailors lemon juice
was established in 1601 by Sir James Lancaster. However, it took the Royal
Navy till 1795 to introduce the lime juice ration for sailors – a period of nearly
200 years! However, Anne-Marie’s message is that they are working hard at
the Golden Jubilee at all levels to get it right. This is reflected in a number of
ways; eg low staff turnover, few grievances and few complaints.
The members clearly enjoyed Anne-Marie’s talk. It was clear from the
question and answer session that a number of members were very satisfied
‘customers’ of the Jubilee! So given the hospital can show it is delivering, let
us hope that the quality message is rolled out across the NHS faster than the
Royal Navy’s adoption of lime juice regime.