In Belfast Trust we are constantly looking for ways to improve the services we provide to ensure our patients get the best possible treatment and care. This page describes some of the service moves and innovations that are taking place in the near future.
Increasing capacity
The unit’s highly-experienced consultants perform around 1,000 cases a year. However, this is not enough to meet the needs of the population in Northern Ireland and we requested further investment in cardiac surgery from the Health and Social Care Board to increase the number of cardiac operations commissioned in the Royal Victoria Hospital. This will reduce the waiting time for patients having this, often life-saving, surgery.
Move to new theatres
To make better use of the resources we have, cardiac theatres are scheduled to move from the original Victorian wing of the hospital to be co-located with the main theatres in the main Royal Victoria Hospital.
When the new Critical Care Building opens at the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Regional ICU will move to this building. This will enable the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit to be moved to the current RICU area, which is more spacious, and centrally located.
A Hybrid Operating Theatre situated near to the new CSICU is being planned which will allow safer procedures which combine cardiac surgery, vascular surgery and radiological techniques.
Nurse practitioners
The Cardiac Surgery Unit has, within Northern Ireland, pioneered the role of nurse practitioners. These nurses have had advanced training and take on some of the duties previously performed by surgeons, assisting in operations, training junior doctors in surgical techniques and seeing patients in the consultant’s out-patients clinics.
Video link to improve patient care
Many patients need to remain in hospitals around Northern Ireland awaiting urgent cardiac surgery which needs to be performed before the patient can be safely discharged from hospital. These patients often have other complex health problems and need careful assessment and counselling before major surgery can be performed. This entails a round trip of over 100 miles by ambulance to be assessed by one of our consultants. We are pioneering a new method of assessment of these patients by video link saving the patients these long journies which not only are inconvienent but may be risky. Patients assessed in this manner so far have been very positive about the experience.
Improved management of patients with complex heart conditions
Care for patients with complex cardiac conditions is best planned by multi-disciplinary team discussion (MDT, or MDM for multi-disciplinary meeting) between the different specialists involved. This is done regularly but as patients are from all over Northern Ireland, it can be difficult to disseminate the results of this team discussion to the doctors directly looking after the individual patients. We are piloting a scheme to have the results of these discussions immediately documented on NIECR (Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record) so the the outcomes are immediately available to health care professionals all over Northern Ireland.
Admission Clinic
We are currently developing a streamlined process for admitting patients to improve efficiency and prevent last minute cancellations of surgery.