Recent highlights

Here you can find information about some recent developments at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Clinical highlights

The partnership between Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London was designated as one of the UK’s five academic health science centres (AHSCs) in March 2009.

New ICU
A new intensive care unit (ICU) opened at St Mary’s Hospital in March 2009. This new unit doubled the floor space of the previous facility within the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (QEQM) building. The new ICU replaces a 13-bed unit on the fourth floor, which has now been redeveloped to create new theatre and ward space.

In a UK first, the ICU is equipped with a video communications and patient information system that enables staff to communicate with visitors, colleagues and managers without ever leaving the bedside. Managers, consultants and educators can similarly view the patient from a remote location, allowing them unprecedented access and a mechanism to support staff on the ground.

Major trauma centre
A new, world-class major trauma centre is to be located at St Mary’s Hospital as part of a plan to significantly improve care for major trauma patients in London. The centre will be one of four in London that will treat the most seriously ill patients, such as those with multiple injuries, life-threatening wounds and multiple fractures.

St Mary's Hospital exterior imageTeams of specialists including trauma surgeons, orthopaedic surgeons and neurosurgeons will be on hand to care for these patients. Patients with less serious injuries will continue to be treated by their local A&E trauma centres.

The other three London major trauma centres are located at Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, St George’s Hospital in Tooting and King’s College Hospital in Denmark Hill.

Hyper-acute stroke services
Linked to the major trauma centres is the development of eight hyper-acute stroke centres that will provide specialist care to patients following a stroke, after which they will be transferred to one of 24 local stroke units to continue their recovery. A new hyper-acute stroke centre will be located at Charing Cross Hospital.

Acute imaging centre
Thousands of patients will benefit from the opening of a £4m acute imaging centre at St Mary’s Hospital. Based close to A&E, the new facility will house a state-of-the-art GE 3-tesla magnetic resonance (MR) scanner - the first in Europe - and a 256-slice computed tomography (CT) scanner - the first in the UK.

Advances in robotics
The Trust is piloting a scheme where medical robots will cover ward rounds. Remote Presence (RP6) robots allow a medical expert to visually examine and communicate with a patient from anywhere in the world, via the machine, using wireless technology. The robots can also be used for surgical teaching and even videoconferencing.

The Trust is also pioneering the world’s first robot able to navigate the human heart during a popular procedure to eliminate heart rhythm disorders (catheter ablation). The Sensei Robotic Catheter system, developed by Hansen Medical, was launched globally in May 2007 with St Mary’s Hospital announced as Europe’s first centre for training and development.

New renal unit
A new satellite renal unit opened in Hayes on April 1, 2008. It is a stand-alone nurse-led unit that sees around 90 patients from the local area each week at its 24 dialysis stations. In order to provide the best possible service to patients, who have to dialyse three times a week for an average of four to five hours, the centre offers three shifts: morning, afternoon and twilight.

Surgical safety checklist
St Mary’s Hospital was the only site in Europe taking part in the World Health Organisation (WHO) pilot for a surgical safety checklist. Local data showed an approximate 20 percent drop in complications and a reduction in death rates from 1.1 percent to 0.3 percent after the introduction of the checklist. We were the first UK trust to roll out the checklist trust-wide, on March 1, 2009.

New GP-led health centres
Both Hammersmith and Charing Cross hospitals have opened large GP-led health centres (polyclinics) to ease pressure on their A&E departments. Thirty new doctors have been employed to deal with non-emergency patients who would otherwise be treated in casualty.

Other clinical highlights
Hammersmith Hospital runs the UK's first 24-hour comprehensive primary angioplasty service. The service cuts deaths post-attack by four-fold when compared with the standard treatment.

Charing Cross Hospital exterior imageOur gender reassignment unit, based at Charing Cross Hospital, provides a supra-regional service performing male-to-female gender reassignment surgery for patients from throughout the UK. More than 120 operations are undertaken each year and it is the largest European centre for such surgery. The service is entirely consultant-led with two consultant surgeons who offer continuous on-call cover for their patients. The team has presented papers at international meetings about its work and both consultants regularly give lectures about their service both in Britain and abroad.

Highlights around the Trust’s values: respect, innovation, care, achievement and pride
We respect our patients and colleagues
A new campaign to protect the privacy and dignity of all patients was launched in 2008 using a number of new resources and focusing on important procedures to ensure that dignity and respect remain at the heart of the Trust’s service.

The dignity campaign is a national programme run by the Royal College of Nursing. 

Nurse smiling at elderly patient imageA red peg initiative was also created, using red pegs attached to bedside curtains and side rooms to remind staff to “stop, wait and ask” before entering. Laminated cards featuring red pegs are also placed on medicine trolleys to reduce interruptions during medication rounds, helping nurses to concentrate fully and minimise administration errors.

The Trust has undertaken a number of initiatives to improve working relationships with GPs, including the appointment of a head of GP relations and outpatients.

The Trust awarded a new five-year contract to ISS Mediclean in June 2008 to make the company the single provider of soft facilities across all sites having previously held the contract at St Mary’s Hospital. ISS are now responsible for cleaning and catering, portering, supplies distribution and postal services, employing approximately 1,300 staff.

Encourage innovation in everything we do
An innovative approach to improving patient safety was recognised as a finalist at the 2009 Health and Social Care Awards. The project aims to minimise bed moves, reducing the risk of patients acquiring infections, as well as improving patients’ experience while in hospital.

The Trust’s Learning for Work programme, aimed at people who are unemployed and looking to enter the healthcare sector, received plenty of recognition during 2009. The programme, which covers core topics and includes a work placement, received BTEC accreditation and the Trust was awarded an Innovation in HR Award by the Health People Management Association (HPMA) for the programme.

Reducing our carbon footprint
The Trust launched its new travel plan in February 2009 with a number of solutions devised to increase the numbers of staff cycling and walking to work and reduce the number of staff driving to work and between sites.

The travel plan is just one initiative that reduces the Trust’s carbon footprint. We have implemented several major energy initiatives to help reduce the impact our hospitals have on the environment, such as energy-efficient lights, efficient air conditioning, steam boilers and upgrades of thermal insulation and ventilation systems.

Provide the highest quality care
Modernisation of facilities was a constant theme during 2009, with upgrades and refurbishments taking place at Charing Cross Hospital and Western Eye Hospital.

Reception areas have been redesigned throughout the Trust to create a warm and friendly feel for patients and visitors through improved use of colour, graphics, signage, seating and lighting.

New initiatives include ‘Back to the Floor Fridays’, which sees senior nurses return to the floor in uniform every Friday to monitor standards of care, support their staff and help implement change.

The Trust also has placed patient experience tracker (PET) devices throughout departments, wards and clinics in medicine and A&E that allow patients to respond to questions about their care while in hospital, via the handheld device.

The Trust’s chairman, Lord Christopher Tugendhat, has established a patient experience committee to help coordinate a new work programme across all clinical programme groups.

Work together for the achievement of outstanding results
Key issues highlighted for the period 2008/2009 include the following:

  • A&E had a cumulative year-end performance of 98.4 percent of patients treated within four hours compared to 98.1 percent in 2007/08
  • 18-week wait standards continue to be surpassed in all areas. For example, two years ago, 35 percent of orthopaedic patients were treated within 18 weeks for their operation – today 90 percent are treated within 18 weeks
  • Cancelled operations are at the lowest level ever and this standard has been met in full for the first time
  • Read more about our performance

We take pride in our success
A new awards scheme to recognise the extraordinary contributions made by our staff – the OSC&Rs (Outstanding Service Care and Research Awards) - has been launched. The first annual awards event took place in March 2010 with over 200 staff attending the special awards ceremony at the London Metropole Hilton hotel.

A selection of our recent news stories