Plymouth leads Neuroanaesthesia and Neurocritical Anaesthetic Provision in UK

The Neuroanaesthesia and Neurocritical Care Department at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust is the first subspecialty anaesthetic department to receive Anaesthesia Clinical Services Accreditation (ACSA) in recognition of the excellent service it provides.

This latest accolade follows the accreditation received by the trust’s Anaesthetic Department in August 2015 for all aspects of general anaesthetic care.

A unique peer-review scheme developed by the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA), ACSA enables departments to demonstrate quality in key areas such as patient experience and safe care, and has received acclaim from national regulators including the Care Quality Commission.  Dr Jess Welbourne, Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and joint ACSA Lead for Neuroanaesthesia and Neurocritical Care at the Trust, said: “We are delighted to be the first Neuroanaesthesia and Neurocritical Care Department to be accredited.  We have found measuring ourselves against the standards both productive and motivating.”

Dr J-P van Besouw, President of the RCoA 2012-15, stated that the ACSA process should help departments focus on sharing best practice, clinical governance and ultimately improving patient care: “Through ACSA the College has delivered a recognised benchmark for anaesthetic service provision. The delivery of high quality anaesthesia care relies on the application of contemporary professional guidance, clearly focussed on patient safety and independent of business and financial target pressures. ACSA promotes and supports this quality improvement.”

Dr Andrew Hutton, Consultant Anaesthetist and joint Lead on the ACSA Neuroanaesthesia and Neurocritical Care process, said that ACSA would be an excellent platform to allow the trust to continue developing and maintaining a high quality service.  He added that the trust “look forward to contributing to and accessing the library of good practice that is collated by ACSA, which we will use when developing our service in the future.”

The accreditation at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust will assure patients in the region that they are receiving an outstanding service.  Lead ACSA reviewer, Dr James Palmer, was impressed by the ‘flexibility and integrated approach at the hospital’, adding that “the population of Devon and Cornwall can be confident of the availability of the highest neuroanaesthetic standards should they require admission.”