Hospital speeds up system

More than 80 vasectomy patients have made use of a fast track clinic at Newark Hospital, and waiting lists have been reduced from up to 16 weeks to as little as seven days.

Initial appointments are now said to be much quicker because of the Thursday afternoon clinic, introduced in spring last year.

This has also freed appointments in general urology clinics to improve waiting times all round.

Performing procedures in the minor operations suite instead of the main theatre has also had a dramatic effect on waiting times.

Freeing sessions in the main theatre has reduced general waiting times for patients needing other operations under general anaesthetic.

Appointments for the clinic can be made at GP surgeries via a choose and book system.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust, which operates Newark Hospital, has invested in on-the-spot testing.

A wide range of blood tests can now be performed on patients using portable hand-held equipment operated by non-laboratory staff.

High quality results are immediately displayed on the equipment and plans are in place to send the results to the laboratory computer for archiving.

Providing rapid results at the place they are needed enables doctors to change a patient’s management or treatment quickly.

The tests provided by this new service include blood counts, tests of kidney function and blood oxygen.

Point of care testing carried out on a patient presenting at accident and emergency with chest pain could, in some circumstances, immediately confirm if they were having a heart attack.

The five devices can be found in Newark’s accident and emergency department and on the medical wards, and are also used during the out-of-hours period.

Nursing staff and Newark’s new acute care practitioners have all been trained in the use of this latest technology. Accident and emergency staff no longer need to call in a laboratory scientist from home each time a test is required.