Extra staff for FVH unit
Bosses: More ops possible
A big increase in staffing in the Day Surgery Unit at Forth Valley Royal Hospital will enable hundreds of extra operations to be carried out every year say bosses.
Seven staff nurses and three clinical support workers have recently been recruited to the team which represents a 30 per cent increase in the total staff compliment.
Some of the new team members are experienced surgical nurses while other newly qualified recruits are being supported by existing staff in the unit who are acting as mentors.
Three additional overnight (23hr) and 12 extra day case beds are also being introduced as part of a major £17 million expansion plan to support the Scottish Government’s National Waiting Times Improvement Plan and Elective Care Centre Programme. The plan is expected to significantly increase theatre, inpatient and diagnostic capacity at FVRH and enable thousands of extra MRI scans and operations to be carried out each year.
The Day Surgery Unit currently carries out a wide range of operations including ear, nose and throat, cardiac, ophthalmology, general surgery and orthopaedic procedures. These include knee operations, tonsillectomies, gall bladder removal, hernia repairs, wisdom tooth removal and pace maker insertions.
The extra day beds and theatre capacity will enable additional orthopaedic procedures to be carried out, including more hip and knee replacements, once the new inpatient ward at FVRH opens next year.
Margaret McLay, NHS Forth Valley’s senior charge nurse for day surgery, said: “This an exciting time for us. We are at the forefront for this type of improvement work and are looking forward to being able to help many more patients.
“Hip and knee replacements in particular are increasing in number as we have an ageing population and we welcome this opportunity to provide quicker access to treatment.”
The first of first of two additional operating theatres opened at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in June this year and the second is due to open in Spring 2020. A second stateof-the-art MRI scanner was delivered to FVRH in July. g place 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The new inpatient ward is due to be completed by May 2020 and plans for the newbuild facility are said to be progressing well.
The Scottish Government announced in Oct 2018 that NHS Forth Valley would receive a £17 million investment to support the National Waiting Times Improvement Plan and national Elective Care Centre Programme.
NHS Forth Valley is failing to meet seven out of the eight key standards for waiting times set by the Scottish Government.
However, in September, the board’s chief executive Cathie Cowan apologised after it was revealed the only key standard NHS FV was meeting was for cancer patients to be treated within 31 days of decision to treat, and was failing to meet the other seven key standards.
Chair Alex Linkston also blamed a failure to meet a 62-day target to refer those referred with a suspicion of cancer on the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre.
Figures published in 2018 showed waiting times for inpatient and day case appointments were the worst in the country.
Between January and March 2018 only 56.1 per cent of NHS Forth Valley patients in that category were seen within the 12-week target time, compared with 75.9 per cent across Scotland.
Orthopaedic, general and vascular surgery were said to have been experiencing particular high demand.