Two teams at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have been recognised for their work in cardio-respiratory and sleep services from the NHSE/ICB Health Care Science in Lancashire and South Cumbria Network.
The teams were awarded with a Learning, Excellence and Achievement for Physiological Science (LEAPS) Award, and Trust Chief Medical Officer, Dr Gerry Skailes, presented a certificate to both the Cardio-Respiratory and Respiratory and Sleep Services teams earlier this month, who have both developed and implemented services to provide better care for patients.
The Cardio-Respiratory team were recognised for their work over the last six years, having developed and extended services to benefit patients such as physiologist-led valve clinics, a two-week rule rapid access chest pain clinic, and open access echocardiography for patients with heart failure.
All of these have been developed with the help of the Continuous Improvement team within the Trust, Consultant leads, the British Society of Echocardiography, the British Cardiac Society, and with Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) support.
The department has five trainees and plans to add two more by 2025/2026, while there have been collaborations with Manchester University and various cardiac societies.
They have developed new services, including a Cardio Oncology Service and a Community Diagnostic Centre, and their achievements include reducing delays for interim dialysis, improved patient workflows and reduced treatment times.
Suzanne Gifford, Speciality Business Manager in the Cardio-Respiratory Department, said: “This team are so hard working, and I feel this needs to be recognised. Despite the pressures of workload, the team remain positive and objective to provide the best patient service. They are coveted by the Consultants and Nurses within the team and are known as a ‘can do’ team. They truly are a remarkable team.”
The Respiratory and Sleep Services team, meanwhile, has grown significantly since 2018, operating across Chorley and South Ribble District Hospital, Royal Preston Hospitals, and the Trust’s Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC).
The department provides high-quality diagnostics and manages referrals from multiple services within the Trust and have introduced a Home Monitoring module in Sleep Service to reduce consultant follow-ups, increasing new appointments and reducing patient waiting times, as well as developing a demand and capacity model with the Trust Business Intelligence Team and NHSE to ensure smart cross-checking and timely diagnostics.
The team follows Association for Respiratory Technology and Physiology (ARTP) and British Thoracic Society (BTS) guidelines and implements a "grow your own" policy, which aims to attract, train, and retain employees, while a new Breathless Pathway and electronic referrals to the CDC will be implemented in 2024-2025.
Suzanne Gifford, also Speciality Business Manager for the Respiratory and Sleep Physiology department, added: “I am so proud of the team and what they have achieved. We will continue to progress and address issues as they arise over 2024/2025. We have a grow your own training and development plan which we will continue to progress during the coming 12 months.”
Thanks also go to the Trust’s Enterprise Wide Applications for their continued support in this area. The IT Team have been paramount, including Senior Project Manager, Tony Smith, who has been assigned to Cardiology for the last two years. He has overseen the introduction of paperless electronic referrals, the synchronisation of IT working to provide mutual aid across Lancashire and South Cumbria and has led on imaging storage across the Trust and for Cardio Respiratory. He is currently progressing the Cardiac Catheterisation Suite transition to an electronic referral pathway and has completed the amalgamation of reporting databases and results output electronically.
