The Christie Foundation Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust Annual Report & Accounts 2021-22

Anaesthetics, Theatre and Surgery

Beyond COVID-19: the recovery plan While there has been a reduction in the number of new cancer cases last year, reflecting the impact of COVID-19 to primary and secondary care, diagnosing and referring new cancer cases to tertiary services; in 2021/22 we have seen activity increasing and returning back to pre-pandemic levels. Unfortunately, there is a recognised significant backlog of patients requiring non cancer surgery across GM. The Christie is providing additional cancer surgery capacity by mutual aid arrangements to facilitate the GM recovery plan and releasing surgical capacity locally. Our Services We provide a crucial service to local, regional and national populations. The majority of our work is based on rare and specialist cancers under the remit of specialised and highly specialised commissioning, whilst ensuring patients being treated non-surgically, within the comprehensive centre, are supported appropriately. The following specialties are represented within the directorate: • Anaesthetics and specialist oncology intensive care • Colorectal and Pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) oncology surgery • Gynaecological oncology surgery • Plastic oncology surgery • Urological oncology surgery The critical care service at the Oncology Critical Care Unit (OCCU) complements a comprehensive array of cancer specialties including oncological surgery, clinical and medical oncology and haematology. The eight-bedded unit is a mixed Level 3/Level 2 service. The Christie Private Care (TCPC) is a joint venture with a private health care provider (HCA) to improve and expand private patient services. In December 2020, The Christie opened 2 new TCPC dedicated operating theatres. These have been used flexibly throughout 2021 to provide additional capacity for elective cancer surgery.

Our directorate of Anaesthetics, Theatre and Surgery is a specialist tertiary centre that concentrates on rare cancers, specialist procedures and multi-disciplinary cancer surgery. Recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, our teams of surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and allied health care professionals are working in collaboration with health providers across Greater Manchester (GM). Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic Since March 2020, in response to the national lockdown, our surgical, anaesthetic and theatre teams have re-evaluated the clinical pathways for delivering clinical care. Cancer surgery continued whilst new clinical processes were put in place to ensure the safety of both patients and staff. Surgical activity was performed with agreed COVID-19 precautions and biosecurity measures in place. We introduced additional PPE and updated our training and essential advice. All patients have been clinically reviewed and prioritised for surgery according to national guidelines and agreed oncological prioritisation criteria. In addition, we continued to deliver safe cancer surgery for our patients, The Christie has been a designated cancer surgery hub site within Greater Manchester. Over 700+ patients have been referred for surgery via the surgical cancer hub supporting fair and equitable access to life saving cancer treatment during the pandemic. This was only possible with the commitment and enormous flexibility of our staff, not only surgical, medical and nursing but all professionals facilitating patients’ flow through the challenged and stretched system at the time. Systematic and regular testing was introduced for all staff involved in patient care as well as for all patients admitted to the hospital, which significantly reduced the risk of COVID-19 intra-hospital transmission.

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