‘Super weeks’ shortlisted for Nursing Times Award
Our work to reduce waiting times for patients, thanks to our high-volume ‘super weeks’, has been shortlisted in the theatre and surgical nursing category of the Nursing Times Awards. (Above, some of our Theatre team during a gall bladder high-volume day).
Super weeks, where we focus our efforts to complete more than the usual number of operations in a week, or sometimes just a day, were first introduced as we strove to reduce the backlog caused by the pandemic in 2020.
They involve a huge amount of work and cooperation among several teams across our Trust, including booking and preassessment teams, anaesthetists, theatre staff, nurses and operational colleagues.
Senior charge nurse Ronald Fontanilla, said:
We are delighted the work of our teams has been recognised – this really shows what can be achieved when we all work together for our patients.
Our super week initiatives have enabled us to increase the productivity of our theatres, treat more patients faster, reduce cancellations, and cut our waiting lists. We can’t wait to represent our Trust at the awards and share the impact of this work.
They take place in our Elective Surgical Hub at King George Hospital (above, with members of our Theatre team outside the entrance), which was one of the very first to be accredited in the country.
Initiatives have included several ‘bones weeks’ which focus on orthopaedic operations such as hip and knee replacements. The first of these saw 250 patients treated including 135 joint replacements in just seven days.
Our gynaecology weeks led to a gynaecology month which saw 123 women treated, with 80% of the procedures carried out being major surgery
We’ve also held super weeks for transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) operations, gallbladder surgeries and cataract procedures.
The awards will be held in London on Thursday 29 October – good luck Ronald and colleagues!
Below, surgery staff during a gynaecology super week.
