Background
Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands and the closest to France, is a self-governing UK dependency of the United Kingdom, known for its beaches, it’s excellent sailing, the rich cream from those famous cows and Jersey Royal potatoes!
It’s capital, Saint Helier in the south of the island is home to the 219-bed Jersey General Hospital – the only hospital on the island, which caters for a population of around 100k, which rises to 120k during the summer holiday season. The hospital’s history dates back to 1765 when the foundation stone was laid, but the building today has modern facilities including a state-of-the-art Day Surgery Unit with 22 beds, two theatres, a minor ops suite and a recovery suite.
This Unit has long been equipped with day surgery stretchers supplied by UK clinical device manufacturer Anetic Aid – which pioneered their development back in the early 90s.
Approach
In charge of procurement, maintenance and training for devices in Radiology, Main Theatres, Day Surgery and ITU, is Stock Control Manager Geoff Dines (pictured below) who has a background in both electrical contracting and nursing – giving him a unique perspective on sourcing and managing the wide range of equipment required.
In liaison with his clinical colleagues, he was already an advocate of surgical stretchers (which were in use in both main theatres and the Day Surgery Unit), as in addition to his procurement role, he uses the equipment himself, when assisting with elective Laparoscopic cholecystectomy lists.
However, the Day Surgery Unit’s nine manual QA4 models were 17 years old and had reached the end of their ‘lifespan’ and so were no longer being supported by the company’s service programme. It is the island’s Health and Community Services Policy to change medical devices regularly to make sure they meet health and safety requirements and align to advancements in technology, and so when Geoff approached his Anetic Aid Regional Account Manager Will Barnes, he found an ideal solution: to replace them with the company’s latest powered QA4 Mobile Surgery Systems – which offered many new features.
Outcome
The new stretchers are proving a benefit to patients and staff alike and they have been particularly welcomed by staff who say the new QA4s (with their powered positioning including Raise and Lower of the Trolley Platform and Backrest, Platform Traverse, Trendelenburg and Lateral Tilt) are much easier to operate.
Senior ODP, Recovery and Anaesthetics in Day Surgery Annemarie Mullen (pictured below), says the stretcher’s integral power has made a huge difference, removing many of the risks associated with lifting and handling patients in the Unit:
‘Our all-day urology list has been transformed,’ she said. ‘When we were using operating tables, it involved double transfers (trolley to table and back again) and this has been a revelation!
‘It not only saves time, but it also reduces the contamination risk because fewer items are going into theatre, which in addition, is less cluttered. There can be a lot of equipment and electric cables in theatre, so one less trolley helps with space and moving things around.’
The move has been so successful in Day Surgery, there are now plans to bring in Powered QA4s to replace those in the hospital’s main theatres in due course.
And another dimension...
Another of Jersey’s iconic institutions is its zoo, established in 1959 by naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell.
He is perhaps most famous for his novel ‘My Family and Other Animals’ about his childhood in Corfu which showed his early fascination with animals and love of the natural world. This turned into a lifetime of passionate conservation projects, culminating in the foundation of the zoo itself and the trust which has become his enduring legacy.
There are strong ties between the hospital and the zoo as several hospital staff volunteer there including Anaesthetic Lead and Anaesthetist Dr John Miller (along with other colleagues including members of the ODP team). They step in when there is a need to operate on large primates like orangutans and gorillas, whose physiology has some common elements with humans.
Because the QA4 manual stretchers had come to the end of their natural life and were being replaced, (as were two anaesthetic machines), the decision was made by the island’s Health and Community Services Department to donate them to the zoo!
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