Pioneers in patient care : consultants leading change
London
Innovations: A comprehensive one-stop breast cancer clinic using new surgical techniques and technical devices as well as improved patient communication including a self-examination video and website
Ms Sunita Shrotria
Ashford Hospital, Ashford, Middlesex
Job title: Consultant surgeon
Speciality: Breast/reconstructive surgery
In spite of carrying the highest surgical workload, all urgent and routine referrals are seen by consultant surgeon Ms Sunita Shrotria and her team within two weeks of the hospital receiving the patient’s family doctor’s referral. The national requirement is 13 weeks.
She has also developed scarless and minimal scar breast surgery to reduce psychological morbidity associated with cancer surgery and a new device to allow quicker and safer surgery.
Ms Shrotria says: “The service helps patients because there is no backlog due to efficient running of clinics. A one-stop service for us means diagnosis, surgery and rehabilitation of patients by immediate reconstructive surgery all under one roof.
We put ourselves in the position of patients to develop and deliver a service we would ourselves wish to receive and our patient satisfaction survey showed that 86 per cent found the service good or excellent. We started the clinic in 1997 but we are continually developing and refining it. It has been funded mainly by donations from patients, other organisations and charity events.”
Ms Shrotria says: “To bring about changes in the NHS is a frustrating exercise. Nothing is straightforward – patience is often tested to the limit. It is painfully slow to implement any new initiative. These improvements, if funded by the NHS, would allow our energies to be directed to patient care rather than looking for alternative funding. All the patients we currently see should benefit from developments but lose out when the changes take years to be brought to fruition.”
My staff find it ironic that a unit has to perform badly before it receives additional help. Units that are just coping or indeed performing well by demonstrating efficiency, through sheer determination, are overlooked and are not rewarded financially or otherwise. Even the simplest acknowledgement and recognition is hard to come by. It is essentially the encouragement from patients that keeps up our morale and makes the work worthwhile.”