An impressive start for West Mid’s new emergency surgery services

West Middlesex University Hospital’s recently launched innovative service for patients with surgical problems is proving extremely successful. 

Early results, after the first few months of running, indicate that the new Surgical Assessment Unit (SAU) and Emergency Surgical Ambulatory Care (ESAC)  service are performing well and making a real difference to patient care. 

Patient feedback indicates that almost 70% of patients requiring surgical assessment said they were seen by a doctor within an hour and nearly 95% said they were seen by a nurse within an hour. 

More than a third of patients attending the SAU were able to go home without needing to be admitted into hospital. 

On average eight general surgery and urology patients a day have attended the SAU / ESAC. 

Together SAU / ESAC services have dramatically reduced waiting times and received excellent feedback from patients - 90% of patients rated communication with doctors and nurses as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ with 80% of patients rating their overall experience as very good and 20% as ‘good’. 

Clinical Director for Surgery Jason Smith said “It is still early days but the results and feedback we have seen so far are very positive and have exceeded our expectations for the service. Already we have introduced a number of extra services including fast access abscess drainage theatre sessions which give patients a much quicker service without the need for them staying overnight in hospital. We will continue to review the service and explore ways we can make it even better. I would like to thank the whole team involved for their efforts in setting up the service and making it so successful.”