The East Midlands has been praised for leading the way in developing better systems of care for people who experience major trauma.
Professor Keith Willett, the Department of Health’s new trauma tsar, recently visited the region to hear about our plans to develop a major trauma system. He was impressed with the progress we are making and praised us for being ahead of the rest of the country.
Prof Willett, Oxford professor of orthopaedic trauma surgery and national clinical director of trauma care, said: “The East Midlands has made great progress in working towards a system of care for its most seriously injured patients. This will be based around the needs of individuals irrespective of where they suffer injury, delivering them as rapidly and safely as possible to the hospital that has the necessary specialists. That will either be directly or by rapid inter-hospital transfer.
Such a system is consistent with the medical evidence, national professional consensus guidelines and independent reports.”
Major trauma is serious, multiple injuries you would associate with car accidents, serious gun and knife wounds or falling off a horse. Patients who suffer major trauma need to have 24/7 access to a range of services including ambulances with trained paramedics, specialist trauma surgeons and teams, intensive care, and brain
surgery. The time taken to be seen and treated by the right specialist doctors and nurses is critical to the chances of them surviving and recovering from their injuries.
The whole of the health community in the East Midlands is working together to draw up plans for a system of dedicated trauma centres at a number of the region’s hospitals. There would be one major trauma centre to take the most seriously injured patients supported by a number of general trauma centres that could stabilise and care for less serious cases.
The ambulance service would also be trained up to better identify major trauma patients and take them straight to the nearest trauma centre rather than the local emergency department.
Bob Winter, consultant in intensive care and anaesthesia at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and joint clinical lead for the regional major trauma work, said: “Having a system of specialised trauma centres could save lives and significantly
improve people’s chances of making the fullest recovery possible.
“The most seriously injured patients will get better access to the very specialised care they need and local emergency departments will have freed up capacity and better support to continue the work they do to treat less life-threatening cases.”
Improving major trauma care was identified as a priority in From Evidence to Excellence, a vision for the local NHS for the next decade which was published by the East Midlands Strategic Health Authority last June on behalf of the health community.
The work is being led by local clinicians and the chief executives of all the local primary care trusts, who are responsible for planning and paying for health services.
Patients and their families are now being involved so that their views and experiences can be taken into account as we design the best network possible.
Options for where the trauma centres should be located will be subject to a full public consultation before any final decisions are made.
