Imperial major trauma centre ranked best in the country
Imperial College Healthcare’s Major Trauma Centre was recently ranked the best in the country by independent expert clinicians who assessed the service.
The 24/7 centre is based at St Mary’s Hospital, covers north-west London and is one London's four Major Trauma Centres. It sees patients with multiple, serious injuries that could result in significant physical harm or death. This includes serious head, chest, abdominal and skeletal injuries, that have been sustained as a result of accidents, sport or violence.
Director of major trauma and vascular surgeon Mr Michael Jenkins said:“We are very proud that our Major Trauma Centre was ranked first at the recent National Peer Review, which saw external expert clinicians checking the quality of our service. This results from a huge amount of hard work by our clinical team and support from our Trust which has been dedicated to improving outcomes for trauma patients in London since we started 4 years ago.”
The Major Trauma Centre at St Mary’s Hospital comprises specialist teams and individuals from over a dozen departments and specialities including the emergency department, critical care and neurosurgery. These join forces to save the lives of people affected by trauma caused by road traffic incidents, serious accidents and falls from height. The centre provides a 24-hour consultant-led service for both adults and children and has some of the top survival scores in the country. It receives over 2,500 major trauma calls every year.
Ambulance crews responding to cases of major trauma in north-west London make an assessment on the scene and, if safe to do so, take patients directly to the Major Trauma Centre at St Mary’s Hospital rather than the nearest emergency service. Some patients will first be stabilised in a local trauma unit before being transferred to St Mary’s Hospital for specialist trauma treatment.
People who suffer serious injury need the highest quality specialist care to give them the best chances of survival and recovery. For the most seriously injured patients, getting specialist treatment at a Major Trauma Centre has a greater impact on their medical outcomes than the journey time to hospital.
Major Trauma Centres save lives and prevent long-term disability by giving patients urgent access to specialist trauma teams, dedicated theatres and state-of-the-art equipment to ensure they receive immediate treatment, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Major trauma is the leading cause of death in those under 45 years of age and is also a major cause of debilitating long-term injuries. For each trauma fatality there are two survivors with serious or permanent disability. This unit went live in 2010 and since opening, activity has increased from a mean of five trauma calls per week to over 50 – over 2,500 patients per annum benefit from our service. Outcome data (from national Trauma Audit Research Network reports) consistently show St Mary’s Major Trauma Centre has an extra two survivors for every 100 patients treated compared to the UK average.
Imperial College Healthcare Charity has pledged its support to raise £1,000,000 for St Mary's Major Trauma Centre Appeal: http://www.imperialcharity.org.uk/major-trauma-appeal
