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Purpose-built pacing theatre goes live at Chester hospital
Cardiac rhythm management and bradycardia pacemaker implantation services have been enhanced for patients at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester with a new Alphenix Sky ceiling- mounted C-arm. The creation of the bespoke pacing
theatre, a turnkey project with Canon Medical Systems UK, included replacing the existing 15-year-old system with the latest interventional imaging technology to improve image quality, reduce dose, and speed up procedures. The room’s remodelling also included lighting modifications to enable greater versatility of pacing on both sides of the patient. Gareth Buckingham, Cath Lab manager,
Wireless, ‘intelligent’, access control
Abloy says its SMARTair wireless access control solution gives Facilities managers full control to lock down access to areas of, or an entire building, ‘quickly and safely’ in an emergency. It said: “SMARTair
offers intelligent access control – opening, locking, or maintaining access to individual doors or zones. With a single command,
doors equipped with SMARTair devices may be set to ‘Block Mode’, and can then only be unlocked with a specific credential.” This means that apart from designated staff, no one on site can move around freely. Alternatively, the ‘Emergency Close’ function can lock all openings remotely and simultaneously, but an authorised credential may still unlock them. As a third option, every device can be set to ‘Emergency Open’, which unlocks them all – for example to provide fire services with instant access to a whole building. Full building lockdown may be initiated
from the system’s software interface or web manager, or an emergency push- button connected to a SMARTair HUB. SMARTair also enables control of individual doors. Staff can pre-define over 250 different lockdown ‘zones’, and – in an emergency – choose whether to lock down a whole zone, or just specific doors. Abloy UK added: “With intuitive management software and battery- powered locks, SMARTair is easy to install and convenient to use.”
18 Health Estate Journal August 2022
said: “Chester has a growing ageing population, and our pacemaker workload is increasing by about 7% year-on-year. Addressing 400 cases every year makes us one of the area’s bigger centres. We’re also seeing an increased need for subpectoral pacemaker implantation, burying them a bit deeper, which previously meant patients having to go elsewhere. Now we have the set-up to undertake the procedure here in our Cath Lab with the Alphenix Sky. “Having a new and productive pacing
theatre adjoining our Cardiology Day Unit also really helps patient flow; we try and pace within 24 hours of referral. A good, robust fixed C-arm has enhanced
image quality and quickened clinical interpretation. Improving quality was our aim, and the Alphenix system has helped us deliver. The Canon Medical turnkey team was excellent to work with, with the project planned well in advance, and superb collaboration with the wider hospital teams.” Pictured is Polly Taylor, Senior
radiographer at the hospital, operating the Alphenix ceiling-mounted C-arm.
Leeds Maternity Centre to be UK’s largest
The UK’s largest single-site maternity unit is being planned in Leeds as part of the development of two new hospitals on the Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) site – providing what Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust describes as ‘a revolution in patient-centred care’. The centre, which will link the planned new Leeds Children’s Hospital and new hospital for adults, will be able to deliver up to 10,500 babies annually, providing care for mothers and their babies from across Yorkshire and the north of England. The Trust says centralising services will bring about safer care for mothers and their babies by providing specialist care currently delivered across two sites at St James’s Hospital and LGI under one roof. Currently, the teams must transfer babies the 1.5 miles between sites when they need specialist care.
The new hospitals, planned in a single building at the LGI, are currently being designed, with construction expected to start in 2024, and completion planned between 2026 and 2028 as part of the New Hospitals Programme. Dr Kelly Cohen, the Trust’s Clinical director for Women’s Services, said: “We will be able to provide integrated family care like we have never been able to do before, which is a key part of the new hospital design.”
The new Maternity Centre will provide:
n a new purpose-built induction and labour suite.
n four new theatre units, with one dedicated to planned Caesarean sections.
n a midwife-led unit. n a consultant-led birth unit for higher-
risk mothers.
n two new large maternity wards, with space for partners to stay.
The Trust added: “Many of the babies born in Leeds need specialist care after birth. Being linked so closely to the new Children’s Hospital will ensure families receive seamless care from pregnancy, birth, and into childhood and adulthood – all in the same place. The new hospitals will also be a better place to work for staff, who currently travel between sites to deliver care in two separate hospitals.”
The new centre’s design has not only been informed by feedback from a public consultation in 2019-20, but also via patient groups such as the Maternity Voices Partnership, whose main driving force has been increasing the chances of good outcomes for mothers and families, with patients ‘controlling their own environment and privacy’. Aneira Thomas, Chair of the Leeds Maternity Voices Partnership, said her group was ‘excited’ about the new centralised maternity centre with all services under one roof.
The group carried out two surveys of its members about the move in relation to the new facility’s layout, and feedback was ‘generally positive’.
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