Breast cancer team win national NHS award

Mr Mohammed Shamim Absar, Clare Brearley, Macmillan advanced nurse practitioner and lead nurse for breast services, and Imelda Hughes (seated), pictured above with a mammogram machine

Staff from The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Breast Service are celebrating after winning a national NHS award for improving breast cancer services for patients.

NHS Improvement has been working with doctors and nursing teams across England to transform and improve the way in which breast surgery is delivered.

Awarded as part of the NHS Improvement’s agenda on delivering major breast surgery as a day case or one night stay, hospitals within cancer clinical networks were asked to demonstrate how their team had made the improvements to breast cancer services in their area.

The Pennine Acute Trust has been named a winning Trust and has been applauded for its recent improvements, along with Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust in London.

Patients undergoing breast surgery traditionally have stayed in hospital for around five days. However, it has been recognised by NHS Improvement that this could be further reduced to a day case procedure or with a single overnight stay.

The Pennine Acute Trust implemented a new way of working in April 2011. Patients needing breast surgery attend outpatient clinics at North Manchester General Hospital and The Royal Oldham Hospital, but undergo their surgery at North Manchester General Hospital.

The Trust’s consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon, Mr Mohammed Shamim Absar, headed up a team which transformed the way in which the service was delivered.

Mr Absar said: “Patient acceptability, safety and satisfaction were identified as the key motivating factors in planning the change in the service. We used to have an average post surgery inpatient length of stay of 4.2 days. However, with a total change of pathway for breast surgery patients, the total length of stay is now two days for mastectomy and 0.6 days for breast conservation patients.”

Mr Absar continued: “Patients are initially seen by breast care nurses who will assess their suitability to go on the new 23 hour pathway. Most patients are very happy to be treated as a day case or go home after one overnight stay as they want to get back to their normal life.”

Imelda Hughes, Macmillan breast clinical nurse specialist and the nursing lead for the project, added: “Community nurses have received additional specialist training to deal with wounds, drains and dressings from the surgery as they follow up the patients’ care in the community post discharge from hospital. Pennine breast care nurses also ring the patients at home to check that everything is going well three days after their hospital treatment.”

Miss Janet Walls, consultant and clinical lead for breast services at the Trust, is delighted at the unit’s triumph.

She said: “The breast unit is delighted to be recognised as providing an excellent and improved surgical pathway for patients undergoing breast surgery. The multidisciplinary team have worked hard to achieve this standard of care, using innovative and motivational ideas. Pennine Breast Unit is looking forward to spending the prize money on the purchase of suitable post operative bras for patients who have undergone a mastectomy.”