ENDOSCOPY


“Collaboration really is key. Not only getting the right expertise around the table, but making sure stakeholders internally are engaged and aligned with the approach at the outset. This only makes things more effective in the long term – from speedier deployment to the well-oiled operation of the unit. “Finally, once you launch a solution like this, its development has to remain front of mind. We are constantly upgrading our facilities to ensure they remain best in practice and are aligned with new legislations. The issues hospital Trusts are facing are becoming increasingly complex, and we have to make sure the unit continues to respond directly to their needs. This is something I’m proud to say we are continuing to do with Quest+, with even more advancements planned in the coming months.”


The next step: Providing a full solution


Listening to the market, in early 2019 EMS Healthcare unveiled plans to take its existing endoscopy offer to the next level, with the launch of Trilogy+, a temporary mobile endoscopy facility capable of providing Trusts with additional scoping capacity. Utilising the latest reprocessing equipment, the unit is designed to maximise efficiencies and throughput, with features of the unit including JAG accredited facilities and the latest piped medical gas system (which is HTM 02-01 compliant). The equipment will give hospitals the capability to reprocess six scopes per hour – allowing Trusts to significantly increase the number of procedures they deliver.


The layout of the unit has been optimised to provide Trusts with a complete and efficient endoscopy solution, from procedure through to decontamination. It includes a spacious, dedicated decontamination suite, three recovery bays fitted with piped oxygen and suction, two seated recovery areas, nurse station and toilet.


The inclusion of the dedicated decontamination suite ensures the Trilogy+ endoscopy unit offers full continuity of service and includes all features of Quest+ Decontamination.


The announcement follows a change in recommendation from the National Screening Committee on bowel cancer screenings, now recommended to begin at the age of 50, ten years earlier than previous. Keith Austin, CEO at EMS Healthcare,


said: “This is a significant step forward for the endoscopy market. Not only will it make a real difference to the marketplace, addressing pressing healthcare challenges including patient waiting times, capacity issues and continuity of service, but it will provide a first-class patient experience.” CSJ


1 Based on a flexible sigmoidoscopy procedure the Trust get paid £304 per procedure and the total scopes is 17,682 - the total amount of revenue safeguarded by the Trusts due to the units maintaining their reprocessing capacity is over £5million.


AUGUST 2019 Tackling the capacity crisis head on


Keith Austin, CEO and Founder of EMS Healthcare, discusses how NHS Trusts are addressing new challenges brought about by the lowering of the bowel cancer screening age. Each year, almost 42,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer, making it the fourth most common cancer in the UK. Around 16,000 lives are lost to the disease each year, although this number has been falling since the 1970s thanks to earlier diagnosis and Improved treatment. Just over a year ago, a petition signed by over half a million of us to lower bowel screenings from 60 to 50 was successfully implemented, with ministers accepting the findings of a formal review. Now, there are calls to reduce this screening age even further, as research published just last week revealed that bowel cancer rates are rising amongst people in as low as their 20s. What this much-needed lowering of the screening age has meant, is even greater demand on our public health service for quality endoscopy and pathology services. According to Bowel Cancer UK, demand for gastrointestinal endoscopy is set to exceed 2.4 million procedures per anum by 2019/20 – and that is without taking into account another potential lowering of the screening age. This is having a direct impact on waiting times, with many people waiting too long between referral and tests. Without the adequate capacity to meet the sudden jump in demand, patients face considerable delays to accessing potentially life-saving diagnostic tests. Bowel Cancer UK are spearheading a campaign calling on the government to address the current capacity crisis, handing an open letter to the Secretary for Health and Social care with over 7,000 signatures – an indicator of the scale of the issues at hand.


Not only is there a lack of capacity, but there is a considerable variation in the quality of endoscopy services across the UK. Most endoscopy units currently in use were built many years ago, when cleaning, decontamination, high level disinfection and storage requirements differed significantly. As such, they do not meet the quality standards set out by the Joint Advisory Group for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (JAG), which are critical to providing a satisfactory service for patients. Ensuring these services are of the highest quality is imperative to counteracting this disease and most importantly, saving lives. To raise the availability and quality of


service, we are now seeing NHS Trusts take a more proactive approach by partnering with innovators in the industry. It’s all about getting the experts around the


Keith Austin, CEO and Founder of EMS Healthcare


table and finding the correct solutions to the challenges currently being faced. With the most recent NHS Long Term Plan, there were promising indicators of this beginning to happen. It included a pledge to utilise more mobile medical units – an important step forward, as it is a move away from using inefficient and expensive external services that were previously seen as a quick-fix solution. The flexibility of these mobile units means an increase in demand can be far more easily dealt with, without comprising on quality of care. In the case of endoscopy services, getting all of the elements right is highly complex, from the patient flow and staffing to having an efficient reprocessing system – the process has a number of moving parts. Facilities that can provide a ‘one- stop-shop’ are set to prove the game- changers. Undergoing a bowel cancer screening is an unnerving time for many patients, so providing an accessible, modern and comfortable environment for this to take place will undoubtedly alleviate some of their anxieties. With the lowering of the screening age, it is an opportune moment to build on the progress that has already been made in Bowel Cancel treatment. The truth of the matter, is that early detection greatly improves survival rates. NHS Trusts that embrace innovation in the hospital estate are already seeing strong results from this approach – now’s the time to see this replicated consistently across the UK.


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