Barts and The London Cystic Fibrosis Centre for adults >> Performance
Performance
Our clinical outcomes
Barts and The London’s hospitals are currently one of the top-rated teaching hospitals in the country, according to the independent Healthcare Commission’s national annual health check for 2006/07. The commission’s assessment, which examines how organisations are performing against various measures, including how long patients wait for treatment, patient safety and how the organisation is run, confirmed that the services provided by our three hospitals – Barts in the City, The Royal London in Whitechapel and The London Chest in Bethnal Green – are of excellent quality.
Our cystic fibrosis team was shortlisted for the Barts and The London NHS Trust team excellence award in 2006 out of more than 20 nominations.
Fast and easy access
Most of our patients come to our service from a children’s cystic fibrosis service elsewhere in the UK. We share ‘transition’ clinics with a number of paediatric cystic fibrosis services so that patients can meet our team and get to know them. We offer informal visits to all potential patients to see the facilities and the team before deciding to move to our service. Referrals are seen quickly, but on a date of their choosing.
Number of patients treated
Our service currently looks after 143 adults. It has been growing by around 7% per year and is the 8th largest adult cystic fibrosis service in the UK and second largest in London.
If inpatient treatment is required, patients are admitted to our dedicated six single room adult cystic fibrosis unit. If more patients than beds are available, additional beds are available on the adjacent respiratory ward. Patients can expect to be seen in our outpatient department, a minimum of every three months, with more frequent visits if clinically required.
Each year, between 200 and 350 patients attend as day case attendances or for ward review.
Protecting patients against infection
We take infection control seriously. MRSA infection rates at Barts and The London Hospitals compare well with most other specialist hospitals in London and we are implementing several measures to improve this further.
We follow the UK Cystic Fibrosis Trust guidelines on infection and prevention of cross infection. General hygiene measures are mandatory, as are MRSA protocols. In addition we discourage patients meeting together or sharing any equipment or personal items.
Clinics are segregated by sputum microbiology (whether the sputum grows Staphylococcus, MRSA, Psuedomonas or B.cepacia).
Inpatients use single rooms, some with ensuite facilities.
Patient satisfaction
We are always rated highly in our patient satisfaction surveys.
We offer all our patients a personal care record. This folder contains useful information for the younger and older adult with cystic fibrosis, as well offering space for copies of all clinic correspondence and discharge summaries. When our current patients were surveyed, they found this to be very useful in understanding their care, and felt more in control of their cystic fibrosis management.
