Dr Raja Reddy from Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust outlines an innovative project for the ambulatory management of spontaneous pneumothorax.
As a team, we are proud of the fact we were the first hospital to have successfully conceived and executed a robust pathway for the ambulatory management of both primary and secondary spontaneous pneumothorax in an NHS setting.
Our journey started in 2013 on a very small scale with just one consultant managing a few primary spontaneous pneumothorax patients on an ambulatory pathway. The service slowly evolved over a period of the next 18 months and expanded to a two-consultant service providing 7-day cover. Secondary pneumothorax patients were never originally intended to be treated on this pathway, but all that was turned on its head when a secondary pneumothorax patient who was very fit requested he be treated on the same pathway. Once he had been successfully treated, the ball was set rolling for expanding the reach of the service and selected secondary spontaneous pneumothorax patients were also included. After that, we never looked back and eventually ended up where we are today.
'This proves you can dream big even in a medium-sized district general hospital, and no matter where you work in the NHS there are always opportunities to develop new and exciting services.'
Once developed, the project was run as per the strict protocol. Throughout the period, individual data was dutifully collected and analysed by the two consultants and any improvements were made immediately. There wasn’t a lot of nursing support initially and everything was done by the consultants themselves. Once we had clearly proved the positive outcomes, we secured funding for a fully fledged pleural disease service. The service is now well established with excellent medical and nursing support and patients are routinely managed on the ambulatory pathway by the team. We have also advised and supported many other hospitals in developing similar services.
This proves you can dream big even in a medium-sized district general hospital, and no matter where you work in the NHS there are always opportunities to develop new and exciting services.
We are pleased to win the ‘Innovation’ category of the Excellence in Patient Care awards 2020. We would like to thank the RCP for going ahead with the awards, albeit digitally, despite the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Excellence in Patient Care Awards 2021
The EPCA 2021 will be opening in autumn 2020 and we’ll be introducing an additional category for work linked to COVID-19.
