In this edition :

» Welcome
» Annual Review highlights
» The future's bright...
» Beardmore Hotel

Welcome to our first e-newsletter, giving you information every three months about the goings on in the NHS National Waiting Times Centre. For those who don’t know us too well, we are a Special NHS Board that comprises of the Golden Jubilee National Hospital and the Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre.

Our hospital provides a number of surgical and diagnostic procedures to help reduce patient waiting times across Scotland. More information can be found on our website www.nhsgoldenjubilee.co.uk

Our hotel is evolving to become a national NHS and public sector conference and training facility. More information can be found on our website www.thebeardmore.com

We hope you enjoy reading about us. As part of our philosophy of continuous improvement, we would welcome any ideas or feedback you may have. Please send any comments to our Communications Team at comms@gjnh.scot.nhs.uk

On Thursday 23 August 2007, Shona Robison, Minister for Public Health, conducted the NHS National Waiting Times Centre’s Annual Review.

As well as being a forum for performance scrutiny of our Board, we also used the event as an opportunity to highlight the work of the Golden Jubilee National Hospital and Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre over the last year.

Position, patients, and procedures

• Reaching our 100,000 procedure in under five years by April 2007.
• In 2006/07 performed over 31,900 procedures – exceeding targets by over 1,000 and achieving an 11% increase on the previous year.
• Providing over 11% of all cataract operations for NHSScotland, and over 25% for the West of Scotland.
• Providing 11% of all hip and knee replacements for NHSScotland, and 30% for the West of Scotland.
• We carried out 78% more endoscopy work compared to 2005/06.
• We carried out just under 50% more general surgery operations than the year before.
• We carried out 25% more eye operations than in 2005/06.
• Heart surgery increased over 18% compared to the previous year.
• We carried out over 15% more plastic surgery work than in 2005/06.

Cash, cleaning, computers and conferences

• Achieved targets for revenue, capital and cash.
• Met £698K efficiency savings.
• No instances of hospital acquired MRSA or Clostridium–difficile.
• Scoring above 90% in the National Cleaning Services Monitoring Tool.
• Won a Nursing Times Award for our Post Discharge Surveillance automated system.
• Introduced one single equality strategy called Involving People.
• Implemented new computer systems such as Picture Archiving Communications System (PACS) that enables digital images such as x-rays and scans to be stored electronically and viewed on screens.
• Approximately 21% of the Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre income from last year is directly attributed to public sector business – 6% ahead of target.

The NHS National Waiting Times Centre has been constantly evolving since our creation in 2002, increasing activity so that we are seeing more patients year on year.

Five years after joining the NHS, we are still continuing to grow at a great pace.

During 2007/08 we will see two exciting new projects come to fruition. The West of Scotland Regional Heart and Lung Centre will open at the Golden Jubilee and our orthopaedic expansion programme will see two new theatres come into commission.

West of Scotland Regional Heart and Lung Centre

The West of Scotland Regional Heart and Lung Centre is opening at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, Clydebank, during 2007/08.

The new centre will bring onto one site all heart and lung services currently provided by Glasgow’s Royal and Western Infirmaries and lung surgery from Hairmyres Hospital in Lanarkshire.

Spread over three floors of the Golden Jubilee, the new centre will be a dedicated surgery unit for planned operations and procedures.

Building work got under way in June 2006 and is nearing completion both within budget and planned timescales.

What services will the new regional centre provide?

• All adult heart and lung surgery currently carried out at Glasgow Royal and Western infirmaries – including coronary artery bypass, heart valve surgery and other complex procedures.
• All adult thoracic surgery currently carried out at Hairmyres hospital, including lung and chest wall surgery.
• The heart transplant unit will transfer from Glasgow Royal Infirmary. A working group is scoping out what aspects of the advanced heart failure service will also transfer.
• Grown-up congenital heart surgery (operations in adults who have had a childhood heart problem) will also be based at the West of Scotland Regional Heart and Lung Centre.
• Most interventional cardiology services, including angioplasty, angiography, electrophysiology and complex pacemakers.

More information on the West of Scotland Regional Heart and lung Centre is available online.

Orthopaedic expansion

 One of the largest areas of our work is in orthopaedic surgery. The majority of our patients come here for hip or knee replacements, but we also offer a wide range of other minor orthopaedic procedures. In 2006/07, we carried out a total of 1,322 orthopaedic procedures.

Our current service

We currently have five full-time Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeons, operating out of two purpose-built ultra clean laminar flow theatres.

There are 27 single-bedded rooms in the orthopaedic ward and we also have a dedicated orthopaedic clinic and pre-admission assessment area, as well as a follow-up Arthroplasty service.

Our expanded service

We are expanding our orthopaedic service to allow us to treat more patients than ever before.

To do this we are bringing into commission two previously unused theatres – taking our total number of state-of-the-art laminar flow theatres to four. Building work is well under way, with the first of these theatres coming into use from November 2007, with the second fully operational in April 2008.

We will also be increasing the number of orthopaedic ward beds to 48 to help us meet our target of carrying out 165 joints in 2007/8. In 2008/9 we expect to carry out an additional 1000 joints and 750 minor procedures in these new theatres.

We have recently appointed three new orthopaedic consultants, taking our total number to eight and adding to NHS Scotland’s complement of staff. A number of opportunities will be available within nursing and allied health professions.

All of our current vacancies can be found at http://www.nhsgoldenjubilee.co.uk/staff/vacancies.php.

You can find more information about our Orthopaedic Department online.

We announced last year that the Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre was focusing on becoming an NHS and public sector conference and training facility. As an integral part of the NHS National Waiting Times Centre, we are delighted that so many of you are now regular visitors to the Beardmore where we aim to provide excellent value for the public purse.

Our number one priority is providing you with a venue to create successful and productive conferences, meetings and training courses. With this in mind, we have recently introduced a range of new services including:

• video conferencing allowing delegates to participate from remote locations eliminating the need to travel
• a new conference room catering for 120 in round table format and 240 in theatre format
• free wireless internet throughout the centre and dedicated fast broadband internet access
• free parking for 300 vehicles
• a remodelled reception creating a comfortable networking area and a range of easily accessed business and online services
• a  new relaxed lounge area designed for residential delegates to unwind
• access to web casting and audience response systems
• an extra training room taking our total number of conference and training rooms to 14.

The Beardmore has a total of 168 comfortable bedrooms. With a number of options to eat and relax, including use of the gym and swimming pool, it is a great hotel if you have business in the west of Glasgow.  

Our bed and breakfast rate of £62 plus vat for all government and NHS business is good value, and we are happy to extend this public sector staff rate for leisure purposes also.  If you wish to bring a partner we can upgrade this to a double room for an extra £15.

For more information on our facilities, as well as conference and leisure special offers, please visit www.thebeardmore.com